
A new way to read and print double-sided paper (2016) - Tomte
https://mathlesstraveled.com/2016/01/08/a-new-way-to-read-and-print-double-sided-paper/
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yoz-y
I’d rather have 1/8 2/7 3/6 4/5 that way you read a page, flip it and put it
on top of another stack. You end up with a well ordered stack with the second
half correctly ordered.

~~~
jobigoud
With a second stack you could use the original numbering of the article in an
even simpler way: read a page, put it on top of another stack (no need to
flip). When your original stack is empty, flip the entire second stack once.
Now it's correctly ordered for the second half.

~~~
yoz-y
Actually, I haven't even thought of that, you are absolutely right! Flipping
the paper just seems so natural.

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saagarjha
> There are downsides, though. One is that it’s hard to jump ahead in the
> document by more than one page at a time.

Another is that it's pretty hard to do with a stapled stack of pages, which is
usually how I'd arrange a bunch of loose sheets.

~~~
pottertheotter
I agree. I read through a stack of academic papers yesterday. Each one was
printed double-sided and stapled. Why would you not staple it? I've never had
a problem reading a paper this way.

This is like some runner making a blog post about how they found a better way
to run that involves alternating between running on your feet and then running
on your hands as it prevents the soles of your feet from getting as worn down.
No! Put some shoes on and get on with your life!

~~~
yellowapple
> alternating between running on your feet and then running on your hands

I mean, this is how most fast-running mammals run (if you interpret "hands" to
mean "front feet").

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bloat
Book printing has long involved printing pages out of order and in different
orientations, so that pages are in the right order when the sheets (called
signatures) are bound into the book. See an example here:
[https://www.formaxprinting.com/blog/2018/01/book-printing-
li...](https://www.formaxprinting.com/blog/2018/01/book-printing-lingo-what-
is-a-signature/)

~~~
specialist
Nice explanation, thanks.

I worked on print production software. We called that style of imposition
"bookwork". I once wrote a small app that'd generate those book signatures.
Answer a few questions (page size, sheet size, style of binding, etc) to
generate the whole production plan.

Sadly, my work (IP) was lost during a series of acquisitions. Then the whole
industry segment imploded (ebooks, composite on demand printing, etc).

Anyone wanting to do print production (eg litho) bookwork today would probably
start with EFI's Metrix, which I've never seen or used. But I know the creator
(Rohan Holt) and prepress is his thing.

[https://www.efi.com/products/productivity-
software/impositio...](https://www.efi.com/products/productivity-
software/imposition-layout/efi-metrix-planning-and-imposition/overview/)

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luoc
Well, if you want to extend your note collection you run in a problem, unless
you use decimals for page numbering.

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reportgunner
> _Printing and reading things this way completely removes the need for any
> rules, mnemonic devices, etc. to remember where you are and what to do next_

Yeah, except when somebody flips a page accidentally and/or someone else puts
the second page on the bottom.

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soperj
What is triple sided paper? My searching isn't giving me anything...

~~~
Tomte
He's a mathematician. Musing about how reading a paper would be if paper had
three sides. It's not a real thing.

~~~
soperj
Thank you! That definitely wasn't clear to me.

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dimino
When you bind the pages this doesn't work anymore, since you can't reorder the
read page to the back.

Did I miss the author addressing this, or is it one of the disadvantages not
listed?

~~~
yoz-y
> But this is not a book, it is a stack of loose paper!

~~~
dimino
I promise I did look! Thanks, though.

