Books & Bookcraft

Supplies, Tools

Talas

Tools & Supplies for bookbinding, archival storage, preservation, restoration. Large on-line and print catalogs, NYC location.

John Neal Bookseller

“Supplying calligraphers, lettering artists, illuminators, bookbinders and papercraft enthusiasts worldwide with books, tools, and materials”

Neschen

German manufacturer of products for book care and repair. Their filmoplast T is a very nice self-adhesive rayon fabric tape, comes in 3, 5 and 8 cm widths and a variety of colors [PDF spec.]. I found it at Flax here in SF a while ago.

Lineco

Archival quality mounting/framing, photo/scrapbook and Bookbinding supplies.

On Demand Machinery Corporation

Semi-automatic and fully automated book manufacturing machines for on-demand bookbinding.

Books about Books

A Short History of the Printed Word

A fascinating overview of the evolution, impact and importance of the printed word. Written by Warren Chappell and originally published in 1970, a new edition was published in 2000, revised and appended by Robert Bringhurst. [openlibrary.org link]

The Form of the Book

A collection of essays on book design and typography by master typographer Jan Tschichold. Unfortunately it seems to be out of print at the moment.

The Book: the Story of Printing and Bookmaking

Comprehensive history of printing and book production, by Douglas C. McMurtrie. First published in 1927 as The Golden Book, then reissued under its current title in 1937, revised and largely rewritten. Not a modern reference, but provides a good historical perspective.

The Elements of Typographic Style

An excellent book on Typography, by Robert Bringhurst. Some call it the Typographers Bible.

Free e-books

Project Gutenberg

Online Book Catalog, the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, more than 15,000 eBooks at this point. Read about the background, history and philosophy of the project here.

The Internet Archive Text Archive

Fiction, popular books, children’s books, historical texts and academic books – open to the community for the contribution of any type of text, many licensed using Creative Commons licenses. Also, check out their bookmobile “a mobile digital library capable of downloading public domain books from the Internet via satellite and printing them anytime, anywhere, for anyone.”

Digital Library of India

”…digitizing all the significant literary, artistic, and scientific works of mankind and making them freely available, in every corner of the world, for our education, study and appreciation and for all our future generations.”

University of Pennsylvania Online Books Page

Hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Library, listing over 3 million free books available on the Web.

The Children’s Library

A digital library of children’s literature at the Internet Archive.

The Assayer

User-contributed book reviews, with a special focus on reviewing free books. Includes a large catalog of free books.

Free e-texts on typography

Links to free electronic texts on typography, including publishing, research, standards, and TeX. (no longer online… archive.org link)

How-to, Info, Orgs

Guide to International Paper Sizes

U.S. Copyright Office - Registration of Literary Works

Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the US

ISBN Users’ Manual

San Francisco Center for the Book

”…the SFCB promotes both knowledge of traditional book arts and exploration of experimental book forms…learn about the many arts and crafts of the book through workshops, exhibitions and public events.”

Grabhorn Institute

“nonprofit organization formed for the purpose of preserving and continuing the use of one of the last integrated typefoundry, letterpress printing, and bookbinding facilities, and operating it as a living museum and educational and cultural center.” The Grabhorn Institute is affiliated with Arion Press.

Lorem Ipsum

”…the printing and typesetting industry’s standard dummy text…since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting…”