Preparing Pyramid for DIY binding

Recently I've been wanting to read my Pyramid issues away from the computer. Attracted by various people's printing of GURPS pdfs, I thought I'd see if I could do it on the cheap. And I did! The binding/printing above cost around £7 (~$10) for ~170 pages of GURPS goodness.

In this post I cover how I prepared my pdfs and how to change the code for page sizes other than A4/A5.

Preparing pdfs

The first thing to do was to combine the pdfs for printing. For this, I used a combination of LaTeX, pdfjam and ghostscript. For a quick start, grab the code and read the README at:

Github source code

The premise is quite simple: Remove bitmaps from the pdf (to save on ink), remove full page ads (to save on ink) and add little printed tabs (so it's easy to see which issue I'm currently reading). Note: this method only supports some Pyramid pdfs as removing full page ad and cover pages requires manual intervention. More info in the source code.

Binding

Once the chosen Pyramid pdfs are printed, they'll need to be arranged and folded into signatures. If you don't know what that means, I recommend a good bookbinding tutorial. Here's the method I used for mine:

I chose Coptic stitching because 1) it's easy and 2) it doesn't require glue. There are plenty of bookbinding methods out there, so really it is up to you how you want to bind. I also chose transparency sheets for the covers since they are cheap and allow me to see the first and last page of the book.

The last thing to mention is that you will need to trim the long edge to get the cool tab effect. If you don't have expensive equipment (like this vertical plough for £610 (~$800)) then you can use a sharp craft knife and a metal ruler. The result won't be perfect, but it in my experience it makes the book much easier to handle.

Last word

What do you think? How do you read your Pyramids? Was this post helpful? I'd love to see other's creations. If I ever get any spare time I'll devote it to making a prettier version. Like an epic tome of Pyramid ...