Why do so many books always seem to have a page near the beginning after the publishing info and dedication usually that just says "This page intentionally left blank"? It's not even truly blank, since it says that, but why? Is this there to somehow seperate the "real book" from the stuff at the beginning? What purpose does that page serve?
i always thought it was there for leaving a message if the book was a gift sort of an old tradition they kept but im just guessing
Found this online 'This page is intentionally left blank,' explained [SIZE=11pt]"The phrase, 'This page is intentionally left blank,' is printed on blank pages so that the reader can be comfortably assured that there hasn't been a printing error that left out one page of vital information.[/SIZE] [SIZE=11pt]But why was the page left blank in the first place? The reasoning depends on the written medium.[/SIZE] [SIZE=11pt]"In American and most Western European books the odd numbered pages always begin on the right-hand side," "As a result, it's easy to win a bar bet against the uninitiated by predicting that you can open any book to an odd or even page as the bet requires. Simply split the book and with your eyes ostentatiously closed, point to the appropriate side and collect your winnings. [/SIZE] [SIZE=11pt]Hotwater[/SIZE]
Hello, which brings us to the question, if Chinese, for instance, books have page numbers? Regards Gyro
Hello, good question... but, why should they? Someone must have come up with the idea to number pages. Maybe that were the Chinese or the Europeans or someone else. Regards Gyro
numbering pages might make it easier to tell your progress through the book, or come back to later. i usually use a book mark, rather than remember page numbers. books with a table of contents, or an index in the back make extensive usage of page numbers though. i will admit, a book with a lot of pages in it can be pretty intimidating.
pretty obvious... paper has 2 sides therefore any document with an odd number of pages will print with one blank. It also has to do with how the book is bound. Quality books are bound by taking printed sheets, there are four pages to a sheet, stacking them in order, folding the stack and then it is stitched together. Because 4 is an even number if there is an odd number of "pages", then you will have a blank. trust me, it's a pain in the ass when you have a document all set up for booklet printing and then the client sends you just enough new info to have to create a new page and you have to re shuffle the pagination for the whole fucking thing!!!!!! leaving a page blank is easy, all you have to do is decide where to put it, having content on each page is harder. anyway, it's because paper has two sides.
Hello, I just did a quick search for old book images. Old lot of them doesn't seem to have page number, as far as I can see. Page numbers are indeed practical, but so are wheels. It took some time to come to that conclusion and build one. Regards Gyro
seems like the blank page could just come at the end or something. often times it's an entire blank page, front and back. i've even actually seen a few books with several blank pages in a row.
Hello, I don't know if there is a technical reason for that. But paper is cheap and maybe customers are more happy to shell out 30 bucks for a book with 202 pages than they are if the book only has 198 pages? Regards Gyro
most of them are the result of what noxios gas said. also (as spaceman spliff suggested) sometimes its deliberate to try and leave at least one for autographs and the purchaser to scribble notes or doodle on. (although i think more often, as the gas mentions, just an artifact of the publishing process.)
I have to add to the complexity. This is also used for documents that are arranged into synchronized sets. For example, say you had a building plan that had a matrix of needs for each space. And each space gets a manual. But not every space will need water lines, electricity or carpet. But, you want the sections of each manual to be aligned the same so that later sections are in the same place across the set. That way chapter 5 is always the maintenance chapter or chapter 11 is always the supplier list. Now, apply this to something huge, like NASA, and it makes more sense.
that is still due to the manner in which books are printed and bound and paper has two sides. what they are doing in that instance is making it so content in one section balances with another section(s), remember, paper still has two sides , so if there are 8 sections/chapters with an odd number of CONTENT pages, then there will be a corresponding number of 8 blank pages. As I said, rearranging the content to put the blanks wherever you want is easy. Disassemble a magazine to see what I'm talking about. I've worked in the printing industry off and on over the years, as a press operator, pre-press "tech", and graphic artist/designer/publisher. Whenever I did yearbooks for the local schools and sports teams, I always turned blanks into autograph pages, or filled them with random pics. You have any idea how hard it is to get someone to understand this and provide one more fucking page of content!!?? I guess not, otherwise this thread wouldn't exist....LOL Blank pages are rarely intentional, but simply the result of paper being two-sided.
or when you work for three fucking months on a yearbook project only to have the moron bitch in charge of the "committee" decides to send it off to a different printer who has no idea of how the pagination works, has it printed on regular 20# bond instead of the 24# semi-gloss cover paper and 80# gloss cover stock, it turns out like utter shit and YOU get blamed for it. all because she found a printer that would do it for .10 less a page.......oh well, she got what she paid for. fucking bitch would run and hide when she saw me after that!
