Meet the Supplier: Craft Bookbinding at Smith Settle

January 06, 2026

Step into Smith Settle’s bindery in a small town outside Leeds, and you might find a Folio book in the making at every turn: folded sheets stacked in neat towers, silk laid across boards, bound books pressed and shaped by practiced hands. Here, a small, deeply skilled team proves that craft bookbinding is not a relic of the past, but a living, thriving industry.

For over 20 years, Smith Settle has been one of our closest craft partners, helping to bring exceptional books to life, including some of our latest limited editions from Shakespeare's Complete Plays and Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, to Jane Austen's Complete Novels. We’ve gathered three short films from the bindery floor, each giving an insight into the process that turns printed sheets into books designed to be loved, and to last for generations.

From flat sheets to book blocks: structure first

A finished Folio book begins life as something surprisingly humble: a stack of flat paper sheets which comprise the printed text and art. These pages are printed to an exceptional standard on carefully chosen, finest-quality paper. The first craft transformation is turning those sheets into a strong, flexible book block, the structural heart of the volume.

The next stage is to take the sheets and fold and gather them to create the sections that will comprise the book block. Folio books are always sewn – never glued – because thread-sewing creates a flexible spine that ensures the book can be read for decades without pages loosening. Smith Settle’s sewing machines feed each section with exact accuracy, marrying speed to precision.

After sewing, book blocks are “nipped”: the process of compressing to remove air and tighten the structure. Spines are glued and left to dry, fixing their shape. The book blocks are then trimmed cleanly on a three-knife guillotine, cutting head, tail and fore-edge with remarkable accuracy, giving perfectly clean edges which are ready for gilding. Once the structure of the book block is complete, it is time to dress it with the finishing touches – woven head and tailbands and a ribbon marker.

Watch: How Smith Settle forms and finishes a book block

Gilding, rounding and backing: strength made elegant

Once the book blocks are created, another transformation begins – and soon, neat stacks glint like gold and silver bars across the bindery floor. Gilding the page edges is often the finishing touch for a Folio book, adding a touch of glamour but also protection: sealing the paper against dust and moisture, and giving the book a delightful and luxurious feel.

Once the cover has been tipped onto the book block, then comes rounding and backing. The spine is shaped into a gentle curve and the spine hollow and shoulders are formed so that the book will open beautifully. This is subtle engineering that changes how a book behaves: a well rounded and backed volume should open flat and comfortably, even at great thickness, without stressing the spine. Bookbinding, after all, is as much about the reading experience as how it looks.

In 2023, to mark 400 years since the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio, we set ourselves a clear goal: to create the ultimate edition of Shakepeare’s Complete Plays with every element of the book created in the UK. Our limited edition featured illustrations by Neil Packer, bespoke silk and linen jacquard cloth woven by Sussex mill Stephen Walters, in-house typesetting, and finally binding by hand – all, of course, culminating at Smith Settle after two years of development.

Watch: Two years in the making – binding Shakespeare: The Complete Plays

The cover-up (in the best way)

Before a reader even opens the book, it’s the book cover that speaks – and Smith Settle creates each one with remarkable care. Cloth arrives in rolls, then is cut by hand into panels before being paper-lined ahead of case-making. Boards are painstakingly laid by eye, positioned so that spine artwork and motifs land with precision across hundreds of copies.

For Jane Austen: The Complete Novels, this meant six shades of bespoke jacquard cloth from Stephen Walters, each novel in its own glorious hue, with monograms aligned so they form a single neat line when shelved. It's the sort of joyful detail book lovers notice straight away, and the kind of thing Smith Settle does best.

Once the edges are turned in with bone folders, corners sharpened, and cases pressed to a crisp finish, the casing-in can begin: the endpapers are tipped on, uniting book block and cover to create a single book. The final process is creating a French groove, the faint channel on each side of the spine which gives a crisp finish to the book and ensures that it opens flat. Small flourish. Big impact.

Watch: Creating Jane Austen: The Complete Novels at Smith Settle

Craft bookbinding isn’t quick – and thank goodness for that. At Smith Settle, every fold, stitch and press is done with purpose, not speed. And the result? Books that feel extraordinary in the hand and are built to stay that way for generations. In a world of shortcuts, this is the long way round… and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

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