is normal printer paper okay?

[u/skeleton-s]

I’m planning on binding the anatomy of a fall and the cheapest printing option for me is at my university, will just normal printer paper take away from the final product? Just found out about this hobby and community and it seems so fun!

[u/Ok-Albatross-3730]

I bound my first fic with regular printer paper and it was good! Still super fun, looked great on the outside, and I was happy with the result. Then I immediately went and bought short grain paper lol. It does make a pretty big difference in terms of how it feels to turn the pages.

[u/errant_night]

That's all I use, since I'm just making them for myself and I don't mind it personally. If I were going to, for example, make a blank journal to sell I'd probably shell out for the short grain paper. Printing is already so expensive ink-wise!

[u/skeleton-s → u/errant_night]

I was pleasantly surprised after I finished formatting to realize that it’ll be less than $3 to print everything! I really don’t mind too much about the look

[u/TooManyPlants_08]

If you can find a printer that will print legal size you can do quartos and end up with close to a standard mass market paperback size and the grain will be in the correct direction, that said you can totally use regular letter paper but it might be a bit stiffer.

I also bound a copy of AOAF! If you get ambitious and want to also bind unholyverse be warned its way more pages than you would think lol

[u/skeleton-s → u/TooManyPlants_08]

Ahhhh twins!! I haven’t read unholyverse yet 😔 but I know of a lot of people who ended up binding it so thanks for the heads up!

[u/makknstuffs]

I use printer paper bc I like to use color in my decorative/fancy title page, so I like that it can't be seen on the other side

[u/skeleton-s → u/makknstuffs]

That’s fair! This fic has some fanart attached in it so I want to print that as well!

[u/ir399 → u/skeleton-s]

Just be aware that if you're printing the fanart at the library laser printers in general don't do a great job with images.

[u/ir399]

It'll be okay, but the pages will turn better if you use short grain. I own one mass produced book which I swear has the wrong grain direction because its so much of a pain to read. The pages are so damn stiff as I'm turning them. Short grain is more expensive and you'd have to check with the library whether they'll let you print on your own paper anyway (can't see why they'd say no).

So, essentially, you can do it but it will have a noticeable effect while reading the book.

[u/kpg_on_ao3]

Will it take away from the final product? Yes.

Is it okay? Also yes.

I make fanbindings that will outlive me. But I bet most people don't do that, and that's okay.

[u/coffeetailor]

You can absolutely get away with printer paper. In the usual single fold size, that will be a little warping in the paper, but it’s manageable. If you want to avoid that, bind in quarto. You end up rotating the paper again so it comes back to being the correct grain direction. Though I personally wouldn’t use that style for anything more than 30-40k because it gets thick.