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Bookbinding: A Tutorial (1995)

homepage.divms.uiowa.edu

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Re: Bookbinding: A Tutorial (1995)

#31

Post by mallaidh »

542458 wrote: post #29
mallaidh wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it need to look "modern?" If it's not broken, why try fixing it?

At very least there are some modernizations you could do for text legibility. Screens are bigger now, and today lines of text that run the entire width of the page are unnecessarily difficult to read. Similarly, with more screen real-estate you could pump up that font-size and line spacing a bit.

I'm having none of these problems, it's more legible than all of the "modernized" websites I've seen. Reasonable serif font, pure black text, pure white background. More legible than any posts on here, with the choice of gray text for certain things.

Re: Bookbinding: A Tutorial (1995)

#32

Post by jteppinette »

mgiannopoulos wrote: post #20

A lovely example of super-fast-loading 1995 webpage. Pure content. No garbage. We should find a way to get back to that.

+1

This site is perfect. It allows my browser to convert it into "reading mode", so I can simple read the content with my preferred size, colors, font, etc.

I want to move to more content focused simple sites like this with my own content.

Re: Bookbinding: A Tutorial (1995)

#34

Post by EvanAnderson »

wizardforhire wrote: post #22
meebob wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, the paper weight doesn't matter all too much for whether the book feels "professional"- what I find makes a real difference is in how well you trim the book ( http://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~jones/book/trim.html ) and the quality of the materials used for the cover- no matter how nicely you bind a book, if you choose a too-flimsy material for the cover, it'll feel homemade.

Absolutely! I bought a heavy duty paper cutter off eBay for less than $100. Just search for heavy duty paper cutter or guillotine paper cutter. They have a huge clamp and mine came with an extra blade. One of the best investments I've ever made.

Came here to say the same thing. I printed and bound a couple of books using the very instructions from this site back in the early 2000's. I tried to trim one of the books myself with the "chisel method" and I was displeased with how it turned out. The one that I had a buddy cut with a guillotine paper cutter at his workplace was much, much more pleasing.

Re: Bookbinding: A Tutorial (1995)

#35

Post by prawks »

mallaidh wrote: post #26
Double_a_92 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would just need a bit of CSS to make it look modern without making it slower.

Why does it need to look "modern?" If it's not broken, why try fixing it?

Consumer perception, mainly. It depends on the target audience of the page. Modern consumers have come to correlate certain appearances with quality. It's not an awesome cultural development, but you're not likely to gain much traction by fighting against that momentum unless you already have an oversized influence on that readership's expectations.

Re: Bookbinding: A Tutorial (1995)

#36

Post by bovermyer »

mgiannopoulos wrote: post #20

A lovely example of super-fast-loading 1995 webpage. Pure content. No garbage. We should find a way to get back to that.

My own website has gone from being a WordPress site, to a custom CMS, and now finally to a static site with zero JavaScript and minimal CSS.

You have to be the change you want to see in the world.

Re: Bookbinding: A Tutorial (1995)

#37

Post by clishem »

mallaidh wrote: post #26
Double_a_92 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would just need a bit of CSS to make it look modern without making it slower.

Why does it need to look "modern?" If it's not broken, why try fixing it?

It needs a max-width somewhere. This website was not designed for 25' screens.

Re: Bookbinding: A Tutorial (1995)

#38

Post by 542458 »

mallaidh wrote: post #31
542458 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At very least there are some modernizations you could do for text legibility. Screens are bigger now, and today lines of text that run the entire width of the page are unnecessarily difficult to read. Similarly, with more screen real-estate you could pump up that font-size and line spacing a bit.

I'm having none of these problems, it's more legible than all of the "modernized" websites I've seen. Reasonable serif font, pure black text, pure white background. More legible than any posts on here, with the choice of gray text for certain things.

Here's why I feel the lines should be shorter:

https://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability

And the font bigger:

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/10/16-pixels-body-copy...

Re: Bookbinding: A Tutorial (1995)

#39

Post by mallaidh »

542458 wrote: post #38
mallaidh wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm having none of these problems, it's more legible than all of the "modernized" websites I've seen. Reasonable serif font, pure black text, pure white background. More legible than any posts on here, with the choice of gray text for certain things.

Here's why I feel the lines should be shorter: https://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability And the font bigger: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/10/16-pixels-body-copy...

Now for smashing magazine to change their font colors to #000, for legibility's sake.

Re: Bookbinding: A Tutorial (1995)

#40

Post by Yetanfou »

noufalibrahim wrote: post #27
Yetanfou wrote: post #24

Back in the late 80's and 90's I used to download programming manuals from BBS file hosts (using a self-built 300bps modem, patience being a virtue) which I then printed out on a dot matrix printer (Panasonic KX-P1080 on a C64, later modified with an EPROM from a KX-P1081 to be compatible with the PC clone I got my hands on). The printer used chain-fed paper which I first fed through one way to print the odd pages af…

This sounds very interesting. Do you have any pictures of these books or your press? I'd be very interested in seeing them.

I still have the books hidden away in a box in the barn. The press did not survive the onslaught of ages or rather the need for its constituent parts, it has been recycled. Of course this all took place in a time when photography was still analogue and there was no venue to easily show this type of project to the world at large, i.e. no pictures were taken.

Alas.

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