Vanishing fore-edge paintings | Hacker News Reader

Vanishing fore-edge paintings

foredgefrost.co.uk

134 pointswhatami19 comments

I have nothing smart to add to this other than this is very cool and I've never seen this before. Thanks!

I suspect gilt-edging is cheap to add now (the Barnes and Noble “classics” in hardback have it and they’re not very pricey) - I wonder if a modern process could be designed to “print” these fore-edge paintings.

It would be difficult. The modern mass-produced book is first bound/glued and then cut to size, and consequently has page offset tolerances measured in millimeters. Something like this would require printing precision and page offset measured in microns.

I'm not sure - if you're willing to tolerate more gunk on the edge of the pages. say the book is cut +/- 2.5 mm - each page has .5 of print on the edges, and each page image shifted by .01 mm (or whatever is appropriate). cut the edge wherever, it'll work out.

Glued edge registration needs to be super consistent though - micron accuracy. Maybe you mean the page on the binding/glue needs to be super accurate. I guess, yeah, if pages shift in binding all bets are off. So if there is a shift, or different pages expand or contract under binding differently than their neighbors, that would make it super hard.

another approach might be printing right on the edge of the cut pages, let the ink diffuse into the side, then apply the gilt over that to hide the picture.

Neat problem to armchair. I'm not really willing to put in the time or money or both to figure it out. So ultimately, I'll take your word.

I think the printing process itself lacks the requisite accuracy. If it were in the cutting I'd expect to see more instances of the cuts being crooked wrt the printed matter.

I expect to see it mass produced in a few years.

It's a niche feature on a declining medium.

Probably not.

(By the way, I didn't downvote you.)

I don't think physical books are really a declining medium.

As Taleb would put it, they're 'Lindy' [1].

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect

Declining mediums are great for adding niche features because the people still buying them are enthusiasts who will tolerate higher prices, thus you can add features like this to increase the appeal.

For single copies or small batches, I'm thinking an inkjet printer could be modified to print the image, and a clamp designed to hold the pages in place during printing. I'm not sure how to apply the gilt. Maybe with a paint roller?

The painting is added after the book edge is cut. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fore-edge_painting

There’s a YouTube of a guy doing it by hand.

> The painting is added after the book edge is cut.

As opposed to being built into the paper like a tree ring?

The text is printed before the book edge is trimmed and the words aren't built into the tree.

I don't understand what you mean - the text isn't literally on the cut edge, like this image is.

Everything else is printed before cutting.

The surface this image is on does not exist until the cut is made.

> The surface this image is on does not exist until the cut is made.

Not so. The painted surface is the pages' surface, and definitely exists prior to the cut. The surface that doesn't previously exist (the pages' edges) isn't the one being painted, it is gilded instead (which serves to hide the painting when the book is closed and the pages at rest).

It's easy to imagine that this can be made by printing the edge stuff along with the text then precisely cutting.

Cool! I had no idea what to expect from the link; TIL. :)

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