[nfb-talk] Cost of producing childrens' books in braille

T. Joseph Carter carter.tjoseph at gmail.com
Sat May 8 00:39:22 UTC 2010


The option also exists to do something in between, depending on what 
you're after.  For one or even just a few books, though, I totally 
agree with Dave that you can just pay to have it done.  For more 
regular embossing and binding, or for something special for a gift, 
read on.  Otherwise press delete now and listen to Dave.  *grin*

If you've got an embosser and suitable translation software, chances 
are you can fit card stock into the embosser that has holes already 
punched, making a book-binding punch unnecessary.  Of course, the 
book binding machines (most typically the flat plastic comb variety) 
can typically put the comb on the leaves for you, (though I've had 
VERY limited success with the things and typically do it myself by 
hand...)

If you haven't got that, you can easily get leaves bound at just 
about any decent copy center.  I suggest not going to the copy center 
formerly known as Kinko's because they'll charge you an order of 
magnitude more than any local place!

Often a 3 ring binder will do the deed just fine, particularly the 
archival type binders available in all different sizes that have 
rings that really overlap well, don't open easily, and are designed 
carefully not to tear pages.  Again, you can buy card stock that is 
pre-drilled.  It's hard to find these in 11x11 size, and for Braille 
I find if I must emboss 8.5x11 stock, I prefer landscape orientation 
(though many embossers won't do that!)  Stationery stores can get 
top-bound binders if you need them.

I've also done my own book binding, which isn't hard, doesn't take an 
exceptional amount of time, and makes for an awesome gift if you're 
only doing one or two (in which case you should get someone else to 
do the embossing!)  For printed books, it takes printing software 
smart enough to print the pages double-sided, four to a leaf, in 
batches suited to binding.  Then you just need a bone folder, sold at 
any craft store, for folding a group of leaves over (which I've done 
with Braille, but it's a little trickier to do), and then poking or 
drilling out the holes to stitch the pages together.  Then it's just 
a matter of covering the book.

For Braille, the trick is going to be to do the stitching loosely 
enough to not squish the dots.  Professionally bound Braille books 
use pieces of metal that a group of folded leaves will be attached to 
so that they are kept a bit separated, but for a short Braille book, 
you can do it using methods pretty much identical to a printed book.  
Don't try to bind together a 5 inch thick tome that way, though, 
since you won't have anything to secure the stitching to on the 
cover, and depending on glue given the slight separation of leaves 
Braille needs could get kind of messy quick!

The hand-stitched binding can actually be done really quickly if the 
embosser in question does as the Index 4x4 Pro and puts a line of 
Braille dots in the center of a double-wide page for book folding.  
It makes folding the leaves pretty painless, and given that the 
embossed dots are actually holes, it's fast and easy to stitch them 
together.  Secure to a cover as above, just a lot more quickly.

Obviously the little metal bits used in professionally bound Braille 
books can be gotten from somewhere, but I don't know where.  They 
look to be riveted into a third piece of cover board making up a 
spine just like a 3-ring binder.  Of course, professional Braille 
book covers are made of a lot thicker cover board than is used in 
most binders!

Ultimately, you can spend as much as you want on embossing and 
binding books, but for one or even just a small batch, it's cheaper 
to pay someone else to do some/most/all of the work for you, as Dave 
suggested.  It all depends on what you're trying to do, and how often 
you are trying to do it.

Incidentally, based on my experience at CCB, I suggest those looking 
at embossers made for high volume look closely at the Index 4x4 Pro 
to see if it meets your needs—then find something else!  During the 8 
months I spent in Colorado, that 4x4 spent more time broken and 
waiting to be serviced (yet again) than it spent in normal operation.  
And while the 4x4's usage when it actually DID work could certainly 
be described as moderate, but not heavy.  Certainly not the heavy 
load suggested by the manufacturer's stated purpose of publishing a 
magazine!  I cite it above only because I know it has the fold line 
feature.

Joseph


On Fri, May 07, 2010 at 12:04:53AM -0500, David Andrews wrote:
>Mary:
>
>There are many answers to this question -- if you want to call me at 
>work tomorrow 651-642-0513 we can talk it through.
>
>At a minimum you would probably need a computer, translation 
>software, an embosser, paper, binding machine and supplies.  
>Depending on book you might also need scanner and OCR software, 
>thermoform machine and supplies, supplies for creating tactile 
>graphics.  There is probably more, but this comes to mind.
>
>for one book, it is cheaper to get someone to do it.
>
>Dave
>
>At 10:03 PM 5/3/2010, you wrote:
>>Can someone tell me the cost of producing a braille book.  I need 
>>to know all of the inherent costs.  Equipment, personell, 
>>materials.
>>Mary Willows, President
>>National Federation of the Blind of California
>>mwillows at sbcglobal.net
>
>
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