I'll admit, I've never contemplated the process of creating printed works beyond the effort it took me to print off book reports using the printer in my family's home. Printing is a process that is so simple and common in today's world, it's hard to imagine the pangs early printers experienced.
In an exercise to better understand the printers of the past, I created a book signature using only one sheet of newspaper.
As you can see, it's not very big and the aesthetics are greatly lacking, but hey, it's still a book right? My Book signature has a total of 28 pages, not counting the front and back covers.
I tried my best to mark the page numbers before I cut the folds to create the individual pages, but I did run into some complications. The first and most obvious one is that I had limited access to the pages to write the number on, which resulted in my numbers being very messy and ununiform. I also used a very strong black sharpie to label the thin folded sheets of newspaper, which in hindsight was a terrible decision on my part. The number bled through to the next page, adding to the undesirable look of my book.
I was also unable to mark all of the pages before I cut them. Pages 25,26, and 28 had to be cut before I could access them. I imagine this would pose quite the problem for old school printers, seeing as thought their books most likely contained many more pages than mine does. This means they have to rely more on actual formulations and perhaps a bit of memory to keep track of the folds and pages in their prints, which sounds like an absolute nightmare to me, considering my poor math skills.
The last major issue I encountered while creating my signature occurred when I cut the pages. My cuts were jagged and uneven, some even cutting into the actual pages themselves. While I'm sure printing professionals had access to more legitimate cutting tools than a pair of kitchen scissors, the process of neatly cutting the pages had to be a delicate process. Not only are there many pages to be cut, but you have to cut them evenly and precisely to create a book that's appealing to the reader.
Every issue I ran into only occurred in the process of physically constructing the book. Could you imagine how many mistakes I would have made if I actually had to print on these pages? Considering printers not only had to layout each letter used on a page, but also had to do it all backwards baffles me. To think that this was once considered and efficient means of print production is almost equally as shocking.
My final observation is that printers of the past could not afford to make the mistakes I made while constructing my signature. I did not take extra care to cut or label with accuracy because, I was just using a sheet of newspaper, which is very common and inexpensive. If I was using a piece of paper that was more expensive or difficult to come by (like it was in the past), I would have used more caution and precision to make my signature. This experience has taught me that creating books is really an art form that requires a lot of skill and knowledge, especially when looking at it's history. It's amazing to contemplate printing's complicated roots and to witness what the process has evolved into today.