be doing double-pass printing on both sides of each sheet, i.e.
so that the page allocations look like:
[L] 40 1 [R]
---------------- --------------- sheet 1
[R] 39 2 [L]
[L] 38 3 [R]
---------------- --------------- sheet 2
[R] 37 4 [L]
....... .......
[L] 22 19 [R]
---------------- --------------- sheet 10
[R] 21 20 [L]
(where [L] and [R] refer to your description above). Or are you
using a duplex printer which can turn the sheet over and print
the next double-page on the other side immediately? If the latter
there's no problem; if the former, and you have to go down
[40,1] [38,3] ... [24,17] [22,19]
and then turn these over and do
[20,21] [18,23] ... [4,37] [2,39]
then a slight modification of procedure may be needed.
Now these can be folded/cut down the middle and bound into a book.
You might either cut each sheer very exactly down the middle
and use a glue binder, or place the sheets on top of each other
as shown above and sew (or otherwise fix) them together down
the middle and then fold them.
In the latter case,
a) You will need to guillotine the outside edges so that they
are aligned flat, not bevelled (because of the thickness of
the paper which pushes the inner sheets further out than the
outer sheets). Then:
b) It makes a much better job if, when you lay out the pages,
you vary the page-offset (the gap from the left-hand margin)
from sheet to sheet so that the distance from the righthand
edge of the paper is always the same after guillotining off
the bevel. What this means is that the central pages must be
printed progressively nearer the centre-line of the sheet
than the outer pages. This little detail is also readily
arrangeable with groff (it's a rather professional detail,
which you should find provision for in proper DTP/typesetting
software, but would probably search for in vain in the likes
of OpenOffice or Word. I don't know about Scribus). It may need
some experimentation, though, in order to get it right (for
which your trial copies, to be passed round the 5 or so friends
for proof-reading etc., provide a perfect opportunity).
Come back if you want any further hints.
Best wishes,
Ted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 [NB: New number!]
Date: 03-Dec-04 Time: 16:04:08
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