Hi Folks. I hope we’re all doing well over the long dark.
I’m just looking for some advice from people who have put together their own lyric sheets and music books. any tips or resources (fonts, designe points, how to print/bind etc) would be amazing.
As an asside I’m curious if anyone can point me towards IC looking notebooks with paper thin enough for line guides to go underneath. Most of the ones I’ve found either look quite modern or have blank, thick paper which whilst lovely is my mortal enemy. Again any tips would be much appreciated.
I look forward to seeing you all in the field.
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Can help with note books- WHSmith’s does some lovely multi pack A5 notebooks with plain cardboard covers. Usually you get a lined notebook, a grid book, and a blank one
If you want more durable covers, a plain hardcover lined notebook works just as well (again WHSmith usually has a good selection)
Irritatingly enough, with Paper chase going under, there’s not the same reasonably priced for potentially ending up with a sopping wet notebook range on the high street
(I’d also say, don’t really sweat it, I’ve seen a not too inconsiderately sized handful of folks hide wirebound notebooks as their main ones for in field)
Thin paper is also evil in field as it gets windy as all hell, wet, muddy, and generally Very British Weather…which ain’t brilliant for survival of thinner paper
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That’s an excellent point on thin paper I hadn’t considered thanks.
It’s been a while since i’ve been into a Smiths so I’ll have a gander. Thank you for the tips.
Hello and welcome, Harry 
I’ve gone for all the cheats on this one… My wife acquirred some nice “parchment yellow” paper a while back, and sometimes I sue that, or I just print out my songs on that.
The printing font I use on that is a nice one called “Monotype Corsiva”, used it for decades as “fluid handwriting font”.
For binding, I’ve gone for punched holes and treasury tags. Or indeed, twine.
Hardly the most complex songbook, but it allows me to roll it up and stick it up a sleeve or inside my drum 
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Thanks for the tips and the font. That’s going to save a bunch of time. I appreciate it
For IC printed (rather than IC handwritten) stuff, I like the IM Fell fonts - they’re pretty clear and readable and rarely do weird things to document formatting but they still have a nice historical feel to them.
I also like having a handful of type ornaments (pretty squiggly bits) installed as they’re really useful for adding interest to title pages and marking the ends of sections and so on.
Searching ‘woodcut’ plus a noun (ship, flower, bird) on Wikicommons is fun for sourcing small images for use on covers.
A ring binder, decent glue and half a metre of faux suede will produce a perfectly respectable IC document folder that’s cheap enough to take to a potentially wet, muddy field. Poundland and similar shops sometimes have a particular type of faux suede A4 wallets with magnetic clasps in black and tan, which are surprisingly durable and extremely handy for loose papers, pamphlets and so on.
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