Paper and Ink is both a technical and theoretical resource for anyone wanting to use paper and printing to shape the message, atmosphere, and concept of a book. Paper and Ink is our attempt to share the knowledge our studio has amassed through 150+ book projects over the past 5 years. It’s centered around the idea that things like paper, endsheets, thread, ink laydown, specialty finishes, folding structure, and cover material all belong to the book as much as its content, and it’s the designer who brings everything together under one cohesive plan. This requires not only material sensitivity — or an intuition of what “feels right”— but also an understanding of the possibilities and limitations of book production.

Because it’s impossible to truly understand paper or printing without feeling and seeing it in front of you, we included swatches from many of those projects—leftovers from accidents, make ready, or overage—alongside the text. We find so often in our commissioned work that there’s a disconnect between digital designs and printed reality. Bridging that gap requires experience and resources, which can be really hard to come by as an individual artist or designer. We hope this book can help readers leapfrog over some of that gap. Despite its technical nature, we think it reads like a love letter to bookmaking (at least to us book nerds).

The entire edition is printed, collated, and bound by hand. Each book contains different swatches, meaning each book is unique and imperfect by nature. -Publisher