From The Economist: Deckle edge pbooks and changing times

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Typos and OCR errors in ebooks?

In Gutenberg editions, I have no problem with the odd OCR issue.
In a commercial title? It'll depend on the price.

The ragged Deckle thing?
Never bothered me before. Now I'm just curious...

Maybe a poll might be appropriate.

[StoryEnthusiast]

I've seen and touched this kind of books before, but never knew the story behind. Functionally, I don't see any advantage of it over traditional format.

[Piper_]

I love deckle edges. After reading this, it's sort of ironic is that one of mine is Neil Stevenson's Cryptonomicon.

(It's both uber-tech and historical.)

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by HarryT

They're actually hardback versions of Robert Fagles' translations of Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey".

On that subject, how are his translations? I have a few that I picked up during school, and later heard of his and hadn't tried them out.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

On that subject, how are his translations? I have a few that I picked up during school, and later heard of his and hadn't tried them out.

They're very good. I like them a lot. I still marginally prefer Richard Lattimore's translations, though.

[artig]

It's probably not called deckle edge, and I don't know if it's still done, but at least well into the 1970s many paperback books published in Denmark had the pages uncut. The folds were perforated, but you had to slit the edges yourself to read the book. I have at least one book from 1973 that has never been read, as all the pages are still uncut.

It leaves pages of slightly different sizes, making it difficult to thumb through the book. But I guess it could be a useful bookmark mechanism if you do the slitting as you read.

I assume it was done to save on costs.

[WillAdams]

There were two typical reasons for this happening:

- to emphasise the handmade paper
- to reduce paper and production costs by eliminating a cut and using more of the paper

So it's usually the very expensive or very cheap books which have this.

I've actually purchased a couple of old books which were printed on handmade paper and which hadn't been slit fully, so I knew that I was the first person to actually open and fully read the book.

There was one instance of a famous author finding a a very old book which he needed for research at a library, finding many sections still unopenable 'cause they had not yet been cut, asked the librarian when checking out, ``Who did you purchase this book for?''

--- the librarian's response, ``For you <insert famous author name here>.''

Anyone know the author in question?

Found a great (different) story on this though:

http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/bibliog/library/cut.html

A warning --- if you find a rare book which is unopened, consider / research the value which will be lost by cutting the edges, as well as the possibility of damaging the pages.

[LovesMacs]

I have a collection of poetry by Borges that has a deckle edge. I always thought that the publisher had some paper handling problem, until I stumbled upon one of Amazon's deckle edge disclaimers.

Perhaps the e-book equivalent of this would be an embedded font that resembles handwriting.

[Xanthe]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

I have dozens of books with that kind of edge. And I thought it was a sign that the publisher was too cheap to pay for clean-edged paper.

That's what I thought too, every time I got a book with a deckle-edge from the Doubleday Bargain Book Club, back in the day.

[Jeff L]

There are actually two different items involved here as can be seen from the experience of the posters above.

True deckle edged paper is hand-made sheet by sheet, with "deckle" referring to the paper mould from which the paper is made.

Then there is the ragged edge of burst paper, that is, paper that has had its folds burst, either at the factory or by the user with a paper knife (a paper knife is distinguished from an ordinary knife in that its edge is duller, as a sharper knife will cut its own path and not follow the folded edge).

All this is because the signatures (set of paper sheets bound together) were folded in quarto (or octavo, etc) and the inner folds were left uncut. The uneven lengths you see at the edge comes from the fact that the paper on the inside of the folded signature extends farther than the paper at the outside. To see this effect, take a stack of paper of equal lengths and fold it. The edges will form a triangular shape. Look at the book edgewise and you'll see a series of these triangles.

The Fourdrinier process was up and running by the beginning of the 1800s so most of the books since that time were made from large volume paper sheets. So actual deckle edge books, which is to say, books made from hand-made sheets, were a minority.

So the word "deckle" is being used nowadays to refer to any ragged edge, whether genuinely deckle or not.

In any event, for modern "deckle" edged books, these are the books that publishers are most fond of printing. There are usually additional value-added attributes involved. You'll notice that the signatures are usually Smyth sewn to a fabric spine. In contrast, perfect binding glues collated (stacked) paper to a paper spine. I believe this is where "cracking the spine" comes from as a Smyth sewn fabric spine will not crack.

You'll also notice that the end paper of these books are usually superior as is the paper of the signatures themselves. The boards will often have fabric covers instead of paper (the origin of the term cloth-bound book as a synonym for hard cover).

All of this isn't just cosmetic. It's functional and, importantly for the publisher, more costly. The fact that they're spending more money on the book indicates the value they place on it. Clearly, if people don't even know what they're seeing, they aren't willing to pay more to get it. We have to remember that publishers are book people too. They're in the business because they love books, and these "deckle" edge books are a manifestation of that affection and not just an affectation.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

That's what I thought too, every time I got a book with a deckle-edge from the Doubleday Bargain Book Club, back in the day.

Proud longtime SFBC client here.
The long gone and highly aspirational "Literary Guild" too.
Of course, in those days, getting "hardcovers!, OMG!" at paperback prices justified the ragged edges and cheap paper.
Especially when they came with those way cool Frazetta covers and illustrations...

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Jeff L

...these "deckle" edge books are a manifestation of that affection and not just an affectation.

Some of them. Harry's translations and poetry fall in that category.

The faux-deckle effect more commonly seen is more of a smokescreen that has outlasted its "aspirational" value-add.

If you need a disclaimer to reassure consumers the product isn't defective...

[xg4bx]

Originally Posted by Rob Lister

Whereas I, seeing this form of cut on books, jump to the conclusion that the book is cheaply made. I never once considered they did that on purpose. I'm one of those people that would have complained. Hearing the explanation wouldn't make me feel better about it. I'd probably return the book.

it always looked cheap to me too and i avoid buying any books that have this. even knowing the thoughts behind it, it still looks cheap.

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by HarryT

They're very good. I like them a lot. I still marginally prefer Richard Lattimore's translations, though.

We had to read Fitzgerald's translations of The Odyssey and The Iliad. They weren't bad (to me). For the class, it was nice having the wording tightened up a bit.

But, afterwards, I read Lattimore's Odyssey and was intrigued by the various translations. Since then, I've picked up a couple more and have been passively looking for a Lombardo translation to pick up when we go out.

[GreenMonkey]

Originally Posted by Jeff L

In any event, for modern "deckle" edged books, these are the books that publishers are most fond of printing. There are usually additional value-added attributes involved. You'll notice that the signatures are usually Smyth sewn to a fabric spine. In contrast, perfect binding glues collated (stacked) paper to a paper spine. I believe this is where "cracking the spine" comes from as a Smyth sewn fabric spine will not crack.

You'll also notice that the end paper of these books are usually superior as is the paper of the signatures themselves. The boards will often have fabric covers instead of paper (the origin of the term cloth-bound book as a synonym for hard cover).

All of this isn't just cosmetic. It's functional and, importantly for the publisher, more costly. The fact that they're spending more money on the book indicates the value they place on it. Clearly, if people don't even know what they're seeing, they aren't willing to pay more to get it. We have to remember that publishers are book people too. They're in the business because they love books, and these "deckle" edge books are a manifestation of that affection and not just an affectation.

I like the faux-deckle. It generally find it easier to grab the pages with my fingertips. I generally figure it's a sign a hardcover book that had some thought and durability put into it IMO - they tend to have a better-done binding, too.