Bookmaking

How it all started… Written works in the ancient world began with the clay tablets and stone inscriptions of Sumeria. The Egyptians, with a new material for writing made from reeds called papyrus, created a new format, the scroll, over 3000 years ago. The codex is the form of the book, as we now know it with boards over sequential paper pages bound together. For religious texts or more important works, an expensive illustration, called illumination, was used.

Johannes Gutenberg, approximately 1452, was the first to use movable type - letters cast individually from metal - enabling the rapid printing of both multiple copies and multiple titles of books. Lithography and offset printing replaced cast type and soon books, newspapers, broadsides, handbills, posters, and more were coming off the presses in larger and larger numbers.

Early computers enabled the use of photocomposition, or the photographing of digital text and images created on the computer onto film or paper for printing. Current computers and personal computing devices have enabled the invention of electronic books - books with no physical component at all.

Here is an example of student work. strong craftsmanship a great design and layout an innovative way of incorporating her lettering into the story a good use of the back and front on each page of her book

Requirements for your book: At least 4 drawing media At least 1 non-traditional media At least 2 painting media (watercolor and tempera) At least 3 media on each page Must have a title Must have front and back of pages completed Must have at least 6 pages