
Too Many 12mos - magda_wang
https://sarahwerner.substack.com/p/too-many-12mos
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taneq
If like me you have no idea what’s going on here, it seems to be about book
binding techniques/layouts. Just to save a few minutes of “what even is this?”

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masklinn
From what I gathered it's not about binding per se but the way to get from one
_sheet_ (the large paper you're printing on) to whatever format you're
targeting, and that for the duodecimo (where you get 12 leaves / 24 pages out
of a sheet) there is a "standard" imposition but the author found a "non-
standard" one which they discovered by having a book with uncut "conjugates"
(where two leaves are connected elsewhere than the spine, so you have to cut
them apart to read the book) at unexpected positions.

In both you cut out and fold a strip of 4 and a strip of 8 (2x4) from your
sheet in order to get 12 leaves. In the "standard", you then put the folded
strip of 4 _inside_ the strip of 8 (so when you enumerate the leaves from
start to end you get the origins 8 8 8 8 4 4 4 4 8 8 8 8).

In the "non-standard" imposition — which the article says is mostly italian —
you put the folded strips together in reverse (8 inside 4) so enumerating the
leaves from start to end your origins are 4 4 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 4 4.

The article notes that you can also put both folded strips side by side (8 8 8
8 8 8 8 8 4 4 4 4 or the reverse) but then it's a bit awkward to bind as you
get two groups instead of a single coherent one.

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52-6F-62
Weird. I took a course on Book History at U of T and I don't think we even
covered 12mo.

Or I just plain forgot, or figured "why bother"... both of which are also as
likely.

I used to run a couple small prints for my own amusement and don't think I
ever ventured outside of quarto or ocatvo, but also probably because of the
format of the paper I was using.

Interesting post.

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yellowapple
Re: the quirkiness of duodecimos, it seems like it'd be straightforward to
fold it widthwise into thirds, then lengthwise into quarters, no? The first
step there is pretty common for letterfolds, and the second step seems like
it'd be common for sextodecimos.

