Bookbinding facts for kids

Bookbinding is the process of putting a book together. The pages are put inside a book covering, then attached to the spine (closed edge of the book) by sewing or glueing. Bookbinding is an artistic practice from many centuries ago but it has also been industrialized. Bookbinding machines were invented in the 19th century and most books are made in factories by mechanical mass production.

A person who binds books is called a bookbinder. Today, most hand-bound books are specially made, and more expensive than a factory-made book. Bookbinding is a specialized job. Bookbinders must be skilled in measuring, cutting, glueing, leather working, graphic arts, and fabric crafts, among other things.

Images for kids

• 

  A traditional bookbinder at work

• 

  Bookbinder's type holder

• 

  Early medieval bookcase containing about ten codices depicted in the Codex Amiatinus (c. 700)

• 

  Decorative binding with figurehead of the 12th century manuscript Liber Landavensis

• 

  9th-century Qur'an in Reza Abbasi Museum

• 

  Sammelband of three alchemical treatises, bound in Strasbourg by Samuel Emmel c. 1568, showing metal clasps and leather covering of boards

• 

  Marbled book board from a book published in London in 1872

• 

  Modern paperback spines

• 

  Hardbound book spine stitching

• 

  Traditionally sewn book opened flat

• 

  Hardbound book with half leather binding (spine and corners) and marbled boards

• 

  Cloth book cover with attached paper panel, mimicking half leather binding

• 

  Rebacking saving original spine, showing one volume finished and one untouched

• 

  Example of blind tooling a book binding with exquisite detail

• 

  Three books with different titling orientations: ascending (left), descending (middle) and upright (right)

See also

In Spanish: Encuadernación para niños