Books, and the tools for making them

Herbert Designs makes books and the equipment for binding them. The work runs along three lines that meet at the workbench: new editions of old books, plans for bindery tools, and software that takes the arithmetic out of hand binding.

Digital Books

Digital Books is our imprint for public-domain classics. Each edition is set from a chosen source text, laid out at 5.5 × 8.5 inches, and given a clean, readable page.

Tools and plans

Hand binding needs a few sturdy pieces of equipment: a press, a sewing frame, something to hold a text block while it is glued and trimmed. We build our own and draw up plans so others can build them too, beginning with a screw-driven book press.

Quire

Quire grew out of printing our own editions for hand binding. It arranges a book's pages into signatures so they come off a home printer ready to fold and sew, and it is free for anyone to use.