How To Bind Freedom Essays Into Booklets

Printing

1. In the ‘Print Table’ below, choose the individual essays that you would like to print. OR, if you would like to print the complete series, choose the ‘combined PDF’ that combines all the Freedom Essays together in one document. You will then need to choose either US Letter or A4 depending on what size paper you would like to print them out on.
2. Then, select ‘double-sided’ in the print window (this will halve the thickness of your print-out).
3. For the best result, we recommend printing in colour by selecting ‘colour’ in the print window. If you don’t have a colour printer and want a colour copy, you can take your downloaded PDF file, using a USB, to your local print/copy shop and have them print the essays in colour.
4. Home printing costs do vary significantly depending on what type of printer, paper and ink or toner you are using, however, $US77 to print the entire series in colour is about the average cost to print it at home.

Binding

1. After printing all the essays as one document, or some of the essays individually, you need to put them on top of each other and then, if you’ve printed all the essays, split the pile into 4 or 5 similarly sized sections for binding, of course making sure you don’t divide one of the essays.
2. Next you need to open and then print out 4 or 5 US Letter covers or A4 covers (which shows little pictures of all the essays) — click on either of these links based on the paper you use for printing. Then put a cover on top of each of the segments and hand-write numbers on the top of each cover to indicate which segment they are, as depicted in the picture above.
3. It is a good idea to put a blank page at the end of each segment to protect the segment from damage.
4. You can then bind the segments yourself by punching three holes on the edge and placing split pins/fasteners/paper binders/spikes through the holes — see demonstration video below. The covers mentioned above show where the three holes should appear because you don’t want the holes too close to the edge of the page, or too far in from the page’s edge. (A 1-hole wind-down ‘drill’ punch that will go through 125 pages, and costs approx $US25; a 3-hole punch costs approx $US60.)
5. Or, you can bind it professionally by having your local print/copy shop bind it in plastic coil. We recommend coil binding because the pages are more secure and it allows them to open easily.
6. Another binding option is to place the hole-punched segments into a ring-binder folder, but ring-binders are somewhat clumsy and bulky to handle.
7. Another option is to use a power drill to drill the three holes for the spikes to go through, but if you don’t keep the paper held tightly together when you drill it, the holes will get messy. Or, you can use a thin drill and put quite a number of holes along the side and then run a thread up and down through the holes so it’s stitched.
8. Then, if it’s not bound with a coil or rings, stick a strip of strong tape (we use gold coloured ‘cloth tape’) over the spikes or thread and across the spine (see demonstration video below).
9. Finally, use self-adhesive backed ‘flags’ to denote the start of each essay and write on its number (as shown in the picture at the top of this page).
10. To hold all your segments/booklets, you can find in large stationary stores a zippered case/wallet, like in the picture above, or some other functional satchel or case.

Help for beginners:

1. The choice between A4 and US Letter relates to the paper size you use for printing.
2. Once you have chosen A4 or US Letter, downloading the PDF file could take up to 30 seconds. Once downloaded, the files will appear in the downloads folder on your computer.
3. To guarantee optimal layout and functionality we recommend you view the PDF using the current version of Adobe Reader.
4. For more in-depth help, see PDF Help and Troubleshooting.

Video Demonstrating How To Bind Booklets