I love the gamebooks by Joe Dever, which enriched my childhood and teenage years, and even these days, I still enjoy flipping through one of them. Out of nostalgia \u2014 and because those adventures are wonderfully nerdy. Unfortunately, these books only exist as plain paperbacks, which does have its charm, since that\u2019s how they originally came out. But a beautiful collector\u2019s edition is, of course, a completely different thing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
During my university years, exam periods were always relaxed for me. That\u2019s because I had already absorbed the material throughout the semester, so there was never a need for last-minute cramming. I used that time for relaxing things \u2014 watching South Park<\/em>, playing MMORPGs, and other brain-refreshing activities. At the end of one semester, I digitized the original books from the 1980s \u2014 the first twelve volumes of the Lone Wolf<\/em> series. It was a bit of work, but surprisingly quick and efficient. Then I reprinted them in a larger format and had one bound as a hardcover. As you can see in the image below, I went for a simple black cover.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n For years, the book sat like that on my shelf, and somehow, I never got around to designing a proper cover. Not long ago, I got the Affinity Suite<\/a>, which also includes Affinity Publisher \u2014 a desktop publishing tool that opened up completely new possibilities for me. The tool is just fantastic, it really is. I\u2019ve already tried out quite a few things with it. Among them, I finally designed a nice cover for this book. The Publisher makes this process very smooth. Okay, I\u2019m a power software development nerd and don\u2019t need any onboarding \u2014 everything is intuitively clear, and for anything else, there\u2019s always Google. Still, I\u2019d say the Publisher is genuinely easy to use.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n One major advantage of DTP software is that you don\u2019t work in pixels or abstract units, but in centimeters and millimeters. That means you can design elements in exactly the size they\u2019ll be printed. With a ruler, you simply measure the book and set up the layout in Publisher. The finished design looks like this:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n I found the images online \u2014 the challenge is mainly getting them in a high enough resolution. Of course, you can use any kind of image here \u2014 hand-drawn, digital, or vector-based illustrations you create yourself.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The Lone Wolf<\/em> books had a very distinctive cover design back in the day. It actually didn\u2019t look too bad \u2014 though maybe that\u2019s just nostalgia talking. Either way, I wanted to use the same font as on the old covers for the sake of recognition. So, I scanned one of the original book covers and uploaded the image to the online tool WhatTheFont<\/a> to identify the typefaces. They also sell those fonts there \u2014 at absurd prices. But if you just Google the names, you can find all of them available for free download. That\u2019s what I did, and I found fonts close enough to the originals to perfectly match that 1980s Lone Wolf<\/em> vibe.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n I had already designed some covers before \u2014 back then for my Balzac complete edition<\/a>. That\u2019s when I discovered the online printing service digitaldruck-fabrik.de<\/a>, and I\u2019ve ordered from them many times since. They\u2019re a real insider tip, especially since their prices are very affordable. I designed the cover on a DIN A1 sheet, which costs around 5 euros. Shipping is quite expensive, so it\u2019s worth printing several at once. I\u2019ve also ordered stickers from them, which turned out great. For this project, I ordered the cover printed on MaxiSilk 135g coated paper. I had my Balzac books printed on the same paper back then, and the result looked fantastic \u2014 plus, it\u2019s really durable. Here\u2019s an example of my second Balzac volume, which I carried daily on the train for quite some time \u2014 aside from a tiny scuff on the back, the cover still looks almost new.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n About a week later, I received the large printed sheet. I then cut out the dust jacket, and voil\u00e0 \u2014 a custom-designed, stylish cover was done!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n I have to say, though, that the Balzac covers look nicer \u2014 they\u2019re brighter. For this Lone Wolf<\/em> cover, the image resolution was just barely good enough for printing. But unless you hold the book right up to your nose, it looks great. At the top, you can see the result \u2014 the thick collected edition looks wonderfully elegant, and the spine with its font and logo is really striking.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n And here\u2019s a look inside the book. It exudes the charm of those classic gamebooks from back in the day but feels much more premium now. I had the book signed by Joe Dever at the RPC in Cologne back then \u2014 it even has a personal dedication, which makes it even more special to me. Sadly, Joe Dever passed away at the end of 2016.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n When I had the book bound, I unfortunately forgot to include ribbon bookmarks. But they can easily be added later. I had already done this for my \u201cpimped\u201d Balzac books<\/a>, but this time, I didn\u2019t want to order large rolls of ribbon just for one book. On Etsy, I found a shop that sells ribbons in every color imaginable for very little money. I ordered two and attached them with tape to the top inside of the book block. It holds perfectly and looks indistinguishable from built-in ribbons.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The result is wonderful and definitely makes my bibliophile nerd heart beat faster. This project even inspired me to take on another book project of a similar kind. The Affinity Suite<\/a> has been well worth it for me. Of course, you don\u2019t do something like this very often \u2014 but when you do, it\u2019s pure joy to hold such a book in your hands.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Have you ever made similar modifications to your books? Restored or customized any of them? Or do you not care about how your books look? Do you have unique editions or one-of-a-kind pieces? I\u2019m curious \u2014 feel free to share in the comments!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I love beautiful books with all that comes with them, and my passion for fine book art definitely places me in a niche. On several occasions, I\u2019ve designed a new dust jacket for myself \u2014 for example, when a book is only available second-hand with a worn or damaged cover. Once, I even had a … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/einsamer_wolf_5.jpg\")
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