Butterfly Binding
Overview
Butterfly binding was common in early Chinese codices. Sheets that had been printed on were folded with the printing on the inside, stacked, and glued together at the fold to form a spine.[1]
Problems
The glue that was commonly used in butterfly binding was apparently very tasty to insects, which was a bad thing for general book integrity. Using glue in general isn't great if you want to make a book that will last, so the ancients figured out new ways of binding books pretty quickly. While there are some limited edition books that use this form of binding, usually with stitching instead of glue, the biggest issue with butterfly binding is that in the completed book, every other page will be blank. This creates a very strange reading experience for those of us who are used to modern book binding techniques.[2]
- ↑ Robinson, Solveig C. (2014). The Book in Society. Broadview Press: 77
- ↑ Chen, Tina. “East vs. West: Best Way To Bind Books.” Calpoly, California Polytechnic State University, June 2010, https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?params=/context/grcsp/article/1031/&path_info=auto_convert.pdf.
