soft cover notebook ideas

I’m getting ready to make a new softcover notebook, and am considering

a few options for the cover material

1. Cover stock paper with screenprint

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2. Cover stock paper with actual drawing

3. Cover stock paper with collage — what for the top coating?? Modge-podge?, Acrylic Medium??

4. Fabric cover, pasted onto the endsheets.

5. Synthetic leather cover

cover image options

1. I rule out ink-jet printing, since it is not water-resistant.

2. printing methods — screen print, block print, stamping

3. drawing/ painting — to be wary of warping the cover paper with water-based paint

4. collage — need to make final surface very flat though

5. laser printing – surface result at Kinko’s is not very flattering.

a few posts ago I mentioned “ombre” prints. I tried out making my own by spraying acrylic paint and water mixed together in gradations. The biggest issue is the water warping the paper.

Fabric and paper layered together can make a pretty strong cover — again, the problem is the water-based glue wrinkling the paper. I plan to try rubber cement and “Yes!” glue to fix the problem.

I am also learning new things about paper and printing in general, primarily from searching for information on-line.

Some interesting facts

1. The print quality on a piece of paper greatly depends on the paper itself.

2. Related to #1 — the brightness of paper is related to its surface texture, in that smoother paper surfaces reflect more light and appear brighter, and rougher textures scatter light more and appear more dull. Prints appear crisper on smooth papers. (Compare photograph qualities on a newspaper versus a glossy magazine. )

3. The most popular way to print mass media is through offset printing. It is expensive to set up, so is not suitable for small-quantity printing.

4. ISO (International Standard O..?) paper sides are proportioned at 1:sq root of 2, so that even when you fold it in half and cut it, the resulting paper will have the same ratio.

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Update:

Eventually, I made the soft cover by laying fabric over paper

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