A bug in the code
is worth two in the documentation
- Source unknown
Stuck Pages
Think what happens when you read some new books. Two or more of the pages are "stuck" together. After separating the pages usually with a letter-opener or in another less than elegant manner, you continue reading, wondering why modern technology has not yet discovered the paper cutter.
Actually, those pages were not really stuck together. They were continuous parts of a larger printing sheet.
Printers prepare booklets or books in sections called"signatures," each of which has 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64 smaller booklet pages. Yes, we also use that word when we sign our name.
The printer sews or glues several groups of these booklets to a binding, and then he slices off the edges so that the book can open. As a result, the book is now a bit smaller. Until he slices the edge, many pages are folded continuously, and you cannot open the book.
If our cheerful printer does not slice the edges carefully, or if the blade on his paper cutter is not sharp enough, then it will not be possible to open some of the pages, as we described above.
This problem also explains why signatures in some defective books are upside-down or out of order.
Perhaps another advantage of electronic books that you can download from your computer is the fact that the pages never stick together!
The next installment in this series will explain how desktop publishing programs can help in the complex system of laying out page numbers of books or booklets.
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Are you required to read this article for a course? Do NOT print out the article. It is copyrighted.
Your exercise for this article is as follows:
1. What are signatures in books?
2. Why do pages stick together in some new books?
Copyright © David Grossman. World rights reserved. This article may not be printed, forwarded, reproduced, or copied in any way or in any medium without written permission from David Grossman.
