How a folio is written

One folio answers one question a binder, a print buyer or an archivist types before a job. The method is the same for every leaf in the volume.

The answer first

The opening paragraphs answer the question directly, in the terms the reader used to ask it. Background follows the answer, so a reader who stops after the first screen still has what they came for. Every folio then sets out what a reader can jump to, section by section.

The numbers

Where a folio gives a figure, it gives the unit and the range together: millimetres and inches, gsm and caliper, points and picas, minutes of open time, tonnes of nip. Ranges are quoted with whoever publishes them, so a reader can check the figure at source rather than trusting a summary.

The order of operations

Binding is a sequence of irreversible steps. Each folio states the order plainly: what is done first, what waits, what can no longer be undone once it is done. That is the part a bench actually follows.

The sources

Every folio names the sources the desk read, at the foot of the leaf: international standards for paper, permanence and binding, the manufacturer's own instruction sheets for the machines, the trade manuals, and the conservation literature. A folio that cannot point to a source says so, and reports what the bench measured instead.

The date

The date on a folio is the day it was last checked against those sources. A revised folio is republished with a new date; nothing is silently rewritten. The date orders the title page, dates the entry in the feed, and travels with the folio in the sitemap.

Corrections

Write to the desk with the address of the folio, the sentence in question, and the source that settles it. A named standard, an instruction sheet or a manual is enough. A folio that is corrected is republished with a new checked date.