Layer counting
If a book is made from folded sheets rather than single sheets, the result of such a fold is one layer . The double-sided printing of a sheet of paper thus produces at least four, but typically 16 pages. This means that two or eight pages of the book are printed on the front and back and the sheets are then folded according to the printing sequence.
The folded sheets must then be cut open so that the individual pages can be opened. This gives you two to eight smaller, double-sided sheets. These are then stapled together to form one layer , depending on the type of binding provided . So that the bookbinder knows in which order the stapled layers are bound to form a book block, the book printer attaches counts, markings or notes at the beginning and in some cases also at the end of a layer. In the simplest case, the layer count thus represents a consecutive numbering, starting with one and indicates the position of the respective layer within a book block. In addition to the layer count, notes are often attached that provide information about which plant the respective layer belongs to. In this case, e.g. B. Abbreviations of titles are printed as notes next to the count. In historical works, at the beginning and at the end of each position there is often a repetition of a section of the beginning / ending line of the following position. This once followed the fact that not every bookbinder could read and not every page was numbered in every case.
By identifying the original sheet, the printer uses the jargon to speak of the sheet signature . However, layer counts were already attached to handwritten works long before the introduction of letterpress printing. The layer count is also evaluated retrospectively to determine the book format . In the example shown, the layer count (2) and the title abbreviation (Musil Mann) from the work “Robert Musil: The man without qualities. Ernst Rowohlt Verlag, Berlin 1930 ”.
literature
- Lexicon of the entire book industry . Volume II. 2nd edition. Stuttgart 1989.