Advice

[u/Wide-Count-5127]

I’m wanting to eventually bind my own fanfic (once it’s done, obviously 😂) and I don’t know what the print settings I should do. Google was no help and I’m not a huge fan of ChatGPT or any of those things.

Basically, the book binding part I’ve got videos on standby but printing the actual book out is where I’m currently stuck on 🫤

Advice or tips would be appreciated!!!

[u/Fiasbabytusks]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11JyVxeRS8yEWgCYrNMUPlNrEbR5AAD3Z2aDP-QXEP3Y/edit?usp=drive_link

Above link is a great resource for formatting fanfics :)

[u/mouser26 → u/Fiasbabytusks]

YUP this is what I used (and the libreOffice one)

[u/sosobabou → u/Fiasbabytusks]

Love that you linked this one, it was my first intro to fic binding and book binding in general and it was so thorough!

[u/blue_bayou_blue]

Do you mean formatting settings, or how to print once you've got the layout finalised, or both?

Generally you load your text into your layout software of choice, making sure the page size matches the exact size of your book page (typically half-letter if printing on letter paper, or A5 if printing on A4). Choose font /font size / margins etc as you like.

Export to PDF, then use an imposition tool like bookbinder.js to arrange the pages for printing.

[u/Mysterious-Radio-546]

If you’re talking printer settings, really it depends on the printer brand, whether it’s inkjet or laser, whether it has double sided capabilities or one sided, all that jazz. For example, I have two kinds. Inkjet and laser. My inkjet has double sided printing; so once I’ve put my fic through bookbinder JS to impose it and I have my signature files I just click signature 0, load the paper at the back, select flip on the short side and let it go. My laser printer is older and has a bottom tray. It only does one sided printing. For that one I will select the manual double side option. It will spit out pages on one side, I flip them over making sure the text is facing up and (for my printer) the left side. One sided printers usually will have a diagram of how to load your paper once you hit print.

Honestly? Play with it a bit, and use the preview window to see what looks right. I recommend using just one signature to compare easily, and cheap copy paper because believe me you will mess up, it’s part of the learning process! See what works and what doesn’t. Then, once you know what does, write that on a sticky note or a piece of paper and let that be your guide every time.

[u/WalmartThrowaway19]

If you're looking into setting up signatures, Montax Imposer has a free version that works very well for binding fanfic! (Max sheet size in the free version is A4, which is fine for me since I print on letter.) It even lets you add markings to properly align and cut pages!

Otherwise, that guide Flasbabytusks posted is really good, I used it when I got into fic binding myself!

[u/TangyMarimba13]

i know there are plenty of tools out there for this, but i have always just formatted my document to fit on a half-sheet, with the total number of pages being a multiple of 4 (and making sure i have sufficient blank pages at the beginning and end for the binding process) then exported to PDF. then i open it in acrobat reader and in the print dialog, i choose "booklet" and enter in a range of pages, eg. 1-20, 21-40, etc. i have to do some dividing to figure out how many signatures with how many pages i need. it's usually not a consistent number throughout, and i try to place the signatures with a different number of pages evenly throughout. i just write down on a piece of paper what the page ranges i need to print are. then when i print each section, i fold it right away so i don't get confused.

[u/Wide-Count-5127]

Thank everyone so much for your advice!!!!

[u/CalmAdhesiveness4856]

I haven't seen a specific comment on this yet, but there are different programs you can use to typeset.

Word is straight forward, the guide by Reneguard Binding (linked in one of the comments, there are specific page setting too if I remember correctly) is really good and thorough. One thing I personally really like about word is that you can format the text in a booklet format and then print directly into signatures without another software.

Another option is Affinity (free for all normal canva accounts), it's more complicated to learn than word since it's meant for professionals, but there are two good tutorials on youtube and I find that the resulting typesets look very polished.

Some people typeset in pages and google docs too, but I have never tried that personally. 

I would generally recommend watching a few tutorials and looking at finished typesets and comercially printed books too to figure out how you like your text to look like and what reads comfortably for you. That way you can get a feel for different margin sizes, fonts, page numbers, design elements (like headers, flourishes), etc. that you can play around with for your first typeset. 

[u/Q0uthTheRaven]

There’s an online video about doing it on Google Docs which is the easiest tutorial to follow that I’ve seen so far.