Was Human Skin Ever Actually Used as a Book Cover?
Halloween is close and we’re officially in spooky season, which means nonstop scary movies and the celebration of all things macabre. The release of Hocus Pocus 2 got me thinking about Winnifred Sanderson’s spell book. The book in this movie – which is a completely fictional account of three resurrected witches seeking revenge in modern-day Salem, in case you’re not familiar – is made with human skin. The book has a tough leather cover with an eyeball on the front,…
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Print is Not Losing Its Touch
There is something special about holding a printed publication in your hands. I’m one of those people who touches everything, and one of my favorite sensations in the whole world is the feel of pages flipping beneath my thumb. It’s a sensation that just can’t be replicated with screen readers. We’ve written before about how satisfying paper can be. But how can printed works fill us with a sense of comfort, luxury or ownership? Let’s look into some of the…
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Binding Basics — Saddle Stitching
There’s so much more to binding than just paperback or hardcover. From the look to the weight to the longevity of the finished publication, it’s important to know how each binding technique can suit the unique needs of your publication and differentiate you from the competition. In this series, we explore how different binding processes are performed in a commercial setting and how they affect the final product. What is saddle-stitch binding? Saddle stitching, also called the two-wire stitch or…
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The History of Walsworth’s Print Operation in Ripon, Wisconsin
Our Walsworth – Ripon location is the most recent member of the Walsworth family of printers, but its history stretches further back than any other Walsworth location. Beginning as a newspaper, The Ripon Commonwealth, the company was purchased by Doug and Audrey Lyke 97 years after its founding. The Lyke family grew the newspaper into a self-sustaining, mid-size printing company named Ripon Printers, simply called “The Printers” by many locals. In 2019, Walsworth acquired Ripon, and today Walsworth – Ripon…
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What Makes Books Smell Like That?
“All my genius is in my nostrils.” – Friedrich Nietzche Are you a book-sniffer? I am, along with many, many others. We can sometimes be seen in a bookstore or library, surreptitiously bending down to inhale the scent of pages. If a fellow book-sniffer sees us, they get it. IYKYK. Book-sniffing memes abound, and you can even purchase book- and bookstore-scented candles. In 2001, Japan’s Environmental Ministry released a list of the 100 best-smelling spots in their country, and the…
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Binding Basics – Perfect Binding
There’s so much more to binding than just paperback or hardcover. From the look to the weight to the longevity of the finished publication, it’s important to know how each binding technique can suit the unique needs of your publication and differentiate you from the competition. In this series, we explore how different binding processes are performed in a commercial setting and how they affect the final product. What is perfect binding? Perfect binding, also known as soft cover binding,…
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