Monday, 3 December 2012
novilty books are becoming impossible
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/novelty-books-becoming-impossible-produce-warn-publishers.html
Friday, 30 November 2012
Thursday, 29 November 2012
Pop-Ups: Technical Feats of Paper Engineering
Not
until the twentieth century do we see a widespread use of true pop-ups, works
containing three-dimensional forms unfolding and rising as the page opens.
Although the idea of foldout models attached to a book's surface had occurred
to printers much earlier, these instances were rare and primarily confined to
books of science and mathematics. (There is a famous example of an edition of
Euclid's Elements of Geometrie from
1570 that contains a manual fold-up model.) However, the mass production of
these three-dimensional marvels can be traced to the work of Theodore Brown, a
now obscure paper engineer. His chance connection with S. Louis Giraud resulted
in the first systematic use of such devices. These pop-ups appeared in a
British series of publications in the 1930s under the imprint Bookano. Shortly
thereafter, the American series Blue Ribbon Pleasure Books began borrowing
heavily from Giraud's publications.
The
construction of pop-up books presented new challenges for paper engineers. The
success of this creation of space within the structure of a book hinged on a
seamless opening. The shapes had to be designed to rise quickly enough to
surprise, while the paper planes had to be arranged to create volume and proper
perspective. Finally, the books had to be sturdy enough to withstand repeated
use. Though the sections were die-cut in the printing process, the parts were
glued and assembled by hand.
The
complexity of paper engineering required to generate genuine pop-up forms
resulted in the creation of a small number of established templates. Publishers
reused successful models throughout a series, and these models then set the
example from which new works were copied. The conventional shapes lent
themselves to easy transformations and could fit various texts. They include
the single figure, the book, the architectural form, the vehicle, and the
landscape scene. Some of the shapes also sustain a second level of action. Once
opened, the operator can use a tab or a handle to create another visual effect.
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