book design: the deckle edge

deckle-edges
Originally uploaded by aesop

i've been thinking a bit about making a book for the typography class i'm taking [&, you know, also about bookmaking in general, as i am wont to do], & i got really excited when i came across this article about deckle edge.

if you read books—physical object books—you may have encountered some that have ragged, unfinished page edges that look almost as if they have been torn by hand. this is known as a deckle-edge page. my beloved copies of fagles' translations of homer's iliad & odyssey [published by penguin] both are produced with deckle-edge pages, & while it gives them a worn, "old-timey" look, it also makes them far more difficult to operate as books: instead of thumbing through easily to the next page, i often found my fingers getting stuck on the ragged edge of the page, not turning quickly enough or going through too many pages at once.

from the article:

The deckle edge dates back to a time when you used to need a knife to read a book. Those rough edges simulate the look of pages that have been sliced open by the reader. The printing happened on large sheets of paper which were then folded into rectangles the size of the finished pages and bound. The reader then sliced open the folds.
...
Perhaps this deckle edge is a way for publishers to prepare for the inevitable. As ebooks and ereaders contrive to make the reading process as simple as pushing a button, physical books will regress to older and older forms, so as to appeal more to the antiquated among us who still prefer them to their digital doppelgangers. Deckle-edges will prevail, uncut pages will re-emerge, embossing will become more elaborate.

this is what i have been saying for years now about books. just as music has split between the easily-consumable intangible [the mp3] & the art object [the deluxe lp edition], i feel books too will fall into a similar path, where value is placed in one instance on content & in another on form.

the act of cutting into a printed book in order to read the pages proves a level of intimacy with the book that i absolutely love. it's engaging, it's interactive, & it's personal in a way that books [even if you don't cut into them anymore] really are. i'm already brainstorming ways i can incorporate that into my own work! but that said, i hope the deckle edge doesn't become standard for book objects, especially mass-produced ones. i think my copies of homer are the last published books i encountered with a deckle edge—& for the sake of readability, i kind of hope it stays that way.