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 The Tiny Book of Great Joys
 
 10. February 2025
 Posted in [12]Random
 · 19 minutes read
 
 If you are interested in how I over-engineered the process of making a tiny
 book for my wife, using AI, a pen plotter, a 3D printer, and a lot of time, you
 are in the right place. The book is titled The Tiny Book of Great Joys (Mala
 Knjiga Velikih Radosti in Serbian) , and here is how it turned out:
 
 The Tiny Book of Great Joys sitting on the table slightly open with the title
 page showing
 [13] Photo 1 [14] Photo 1 [15] Photo 1
 
 My wife is delighted with it, so it was worth all the effort.
 
 This post will take you through the process. It will be a long one, but please
 stick around - I promise there will be a lot of pretty pictures.
 
 Here is the outline of the post:
 
   • [16]The idea
   • [17]Drawings
   • [18]Text
   • [19]Plotting
   • [20]Bookbinding
   • [21]The finished book
   • [22]Timeline
   • [23]Conclusion
 
 The idea[24] #
 
 I had this idea for a while after seeing something similar somewhere on the
 internet.. Since then, I always wanted to make one for my wife - a physically
 small book with a bunch of small drawings of our memories together, inside
 jokes, and little things she likes.
 
 I wanted the illustrations to be hand-drawn, and I had a plan to ask my friend
 to do them. But I knew he would refuse any kind of payment, so I felt bad
 adding more work to his plate. So I shelved the idea, but every now and then,
 it would pop up in my head.
 
 Fast forward a few years - we got a kid, and our routine completely changed. We
 are enjoying it a lot, but it can be very exhausting, and every day seems
 identical to the last. That's why I decided I needed to do something for her to
 break the routine. The book idea seemed perfect - personal and handcrafted - so
 I gave it a try.
 
 To be able to do everything myself, I went to create digital drawings and then
 draw them on paper using my trusty pen plotter.
 
 With the idea in place, I moved on to creating the drawings - which turned out
 to be a challenge of its own.
 
 Drawings[25] #
 
 For pen plotting, one needs vector files, so I started drawing in Figma.
 Unfortunately, I quickly realized that my drawing skills would not get me the
 result I had envisioned. Determined to do it this time, I decided to try using
 AI to generate images.
 
 Midjourney[26] #
 
 I got myself a Midjourney subscription and started playing with it. It took a
 lot of failed attempts to figure out how to get drawings that were simple and
 had a strong hand-drawn feel to them. Even then, I ended up editing every one
 of them, but more on that later.
 
 One of the first images I was satisfied with (it didn't end up in the book,
 though):
 
 Black and white drawing of a cute fox curled up sleeping.
 
 It took a lot of time, but it was fun. Failed attempts were often quirky and
 funny, and I was learning how to use the tool. And it made me feel like a
 secret agent, doing it next to my wife, who had no idea what I was up to.
 
 A bunch of attempts at drawing Link from Zelda
 
 Prompting[27] #
 
 I may be wrong, but I think Midjourney wasn't built for the kind of
 illustrations I had in mind. I was after simple, hand-drawn illustrations that
 felt personal. Luckily, I found a style reference (--sref 230156437) that
 worked well for my case. I used it to generate almost all of the drawings that
 ended up in the book. For those who haven't used Midjourney - you can use
 images as style references to influence the style of images you want to
 generate.
 
 Most of my images were generated using that sref code and a style weight (A
 number that tells Midjourney how much the reference should influence the final
 output) between 150 and 400 (it can go from 0 to 1000).
 
 As for the prompts, these are the key terms I combined with the description and
 the style reference:
 
   • black and white
   • vector line art
   • stylized simple drawing
   • solid white background
   • isolated on white background
   • low detail
   • clean edges
   • sketch
   • rough sketch
   • children's coloring book
 
 It took me a lot of tries - between 10 and 30 attempts for each image you see
 in the book.
 
 AI to Plotter[28] #
 
 Once I solved the image generation part, I had to figure out how to turn them
 into vector files for plotting. The first thing I tried was something similar
 to halftone. As you can see below, in this process, the images completely lost
 the hand-drawn feel.
 
 The same fox drawing, but but drawn with a lot of small dots, using technique
 similar to halftone
 
 Then I remembered [29]this plot of Marble Machine X I did a while ago, for
 which I used AutoTrace to convert the original image to a vector file. The
 great thing about AutoTrace is that it supports "centerline tracing". And this
 time, I learned that Inkscape has a great AutoTrace plugin, which made it even
 easier to convert.
 
 What makes centerline tracing different[30] #
 
 Most of the tools that convert raster to vector images do it by outlining
 shapes. This is not suitable for plotting, as each line in the original image
 becomes a sausage-like shape. Centerline tracing, on the other hand, tries to
 draw a single line following the middle path through shapes. Don't worry if it
 sounds confusing; the example below should make things clearer.
 
 Here is the image of Link from The Legend of Zelda generated by Midjourney:
 
 Black and white cartoony drawing of Link from The Legend of Zelda standing with
 a sword and shield.
 
 After applying a common vectorization technique, we get this. As you can see,
 each line in the original drawing is now outlined, creating this messy-looking
 image.
 
 Vectorized image of Link using common vectorization technique with each area
 outlined black
 
 But if we use centerline tracing, it suddenly looks a lot more like a drawing.
 It is not perfect, but don't worry - we are going to clean it up in the next
 step.
 
 Vectorized image of Link using centerline tracing, looking much more like a
 real drawing
 
 Cleaning up[31] #
 
 In the points where lines touch or cross, AutoTrace is not sure which line to
 follow and creates these funky-looking joints. Here is an exaggerated example
 to show you what I'm talking about. Input is the raster image at the top and
 the vectorized result is at the bottom:
 
 Lines that are crossing and touching before and after centerline tracing
 
 But I found out that if I roughly separate these lines, I get a much better
 result.
 
 Lines that are crossing and touching, but slightly separated before tracing,
 with the result being much better
 
 Let's now apply this technique to the image of Link we've seen above. After
 separating lines (and some cleaning up) this is the image I ended up with. It
 is rough, but it is only used as an input for the tracing process, so it
 doesn't really matter. This was manual and somewhat tedious process, but I
 enjoyed it overall. It was a sort of meditation for me.
 
 The image of Link, but this time with lines slightly separated and details
 removed
 
 And finally, when we trace this image, we get a really nice and clean vector
 file perfect for plotting. Very clean vectorized image of Link
 
 Here is another example. We start with the image I generated using Midjourney:
 
 Black and white drawing of a woman, man, little girl and a dog walking in a
 forest
 
 After editing, removing details and separating lines, we get this one:
 
 The same image of the family walking in the forest but with lines separated and
 some parts redrawn
 
 And the traced vector result:
 
 Vectorized image of of the family walking in the forest
 
 You'll notice that in both examples I did some redrawing (For example, in the
 second image, I redraw the dog completely to look like our dog Zappa.) . I did
 that for pretty much all of the images, to fix things I wasn't able to polish
 using prompts. I also removed a lot of details to make sure images are crisp
 and readable at the small size.
 
 Final image flow[32] #
 
 All of this took a lot of experimentation, but it gave me a pretty solid
 workflow which I used to generate all of the images. The complete flow looks
 like this:
 
   • Generate images using Midjourney.
   • Upscale them two times, because upscaled images were easier to edit and
     tracing was more precise.
   • Clean up, redraw and separate lines by hand using Gimp.
   • Use Inkscape plugin to run AutoTrace centerline tracing.
 
 It took me a while to generate all the images, and the fact that I was trying
 to keep it a secret from my wife didn't help. I think I did it over the span of
 two weeks, mostly in the evening after she would go to bed.
 
 Ganon (Name of the main villain Link fights against in The Legend of Zelda
 series) never stood a chance![33] #
 
 Before we continue I just want to show you two funky images of Link that really
 made me laugh:
 
 Funky looking Links generated by Midjourney
 
 Midjourney please staph!
 
 Text[34] #
 
 With the drawings ready, I turned to the next crucial part - the text. I first
 wanted to write everything by hand, photograph it and then vectorize it in the
 same way I did with the images. But it was a hassle - I had to do a lot of
 editing for text to look as my handwriting.
 
 Evil Mad Scientist, the maker of my pen plotter, has a fantastic tool called 
 [35]Hershey Text. It contains a bunch of single-line fonts ideal for plotting.
 I chose the EMS Elfin font as it looked playful and hand-drawn. I used it to
 write all of the text in the book and I think it turned out great.
 
 Here is how it looks:
 
 Title of the book in English and Aerbian in EMS Elfin font
 
 Plotting[36] #
 
 The tricky part with bookbinding is that pages are not printed in order, but in
 a way that when you fold the sheets in half, you get the right order. I used
 Figma to design the layout, with a great care to make sure pages are in order
 after double-sided plotting.
 
 Here is the layout laid out on A4 sized paper. Sorry for blurring the text, but
 a lot of it is very personal and I want to keep it for our eyes only.
 
 Layout of the book ready for plotting
 
 Plotting is the part that went the smoothest, but not without hiccups. I
 usually use Pigma Micron blackliner markers. They use archival quality ink and
 they are literally indestructible. But this time, even the thinnest one I had
 was too thick for the book this small.
 
 Here you can see the first two test plots (Sorry for the poor quality photos, I
 threw the plots away, so these are the only ones I have) using markers of 0.2mm
 and 0.1mm thickness respectively. Lines got a bit smudged and looked much
 thicker than I expected. This was also the moment I realized I need to remove a
 lot of details (A friend of mine said that in these plots, Link looks like he
 has measles) from the images to make them readable at this size.
 
 Test plot using 0.2mm marker Test plot using 0.1mm marker
 
 I needed to find a thinner pen.
 
 Technical pen to the rescue[37] #
 
 Blackliner markers were made as a more practical replacement for technical
 pens. But from what I've read, an old-school technical pen was the only thing
 capable of achieving super-fine lines I wanted. I went online and ordered
 Rotring Isograph 0.2mm. As soon as it arrived I sneaked out to my study and did
 another test plot using it. Oh boy, was I happy when I saw the result:
 
 Test plot using a technical pen
 
 Lines were thin and crisp and at this point I was convinced the project will be
 a success!
 
 Smudged drawings[38] #
 
 All of the first plots were done on 120gsm printer paper. It is somewhat thick
 paper and drawings looked fantastic. Unfortunately, when I bound the pages
 together, the drawings and letters would get transferred on the opposite pages.
 I could probably get away with it, considering the whole hand made feel of the
 book. But I wanted it to be perfect.
 
 A friend advised me to leave ink to dry for a few hours. I left each side to
 dry for 24 hours, but it smudged again. Next time I tried putting the plot
 (before cutting the pages) between two sheets of papers and pressing it with
 heavy books. I did that for more than 24 hours, but still after cutting and
 bounding the pages, they got smudged again. At this point I was becoming
 somewhat desperate. As the last resort I ordered different, 100gsm paper and to
 my relief it worked! Crisis averted!
 
 In the final version you can still see tiny traces on a few pages, but these
 are barely visible and don't really bother me.
 
 After plotting and cutting I was left with a stack of somewhat delicate pages.
 Now, it was finally time to turn them into a book.
 
 Bookbinding[39] #
 
 As you can imagine, I had zero bookbinding experience. There are a lot of
 resources online, but two of them were crucial for my project as they were on
 how to bind tiny books:
 
   • [40]Mini BookBinding Marathon video
   • [41]How to Make A Miniature Hardback Book article
 
 After reading and watching these and a few generic articles on bookbinding, I
 gathered enough info to try doing it myself. I thought I was super clever
 because I 3D printed sides and spine of the book. I designed sewing holes in
 the spine so I can connect the pages directly to it without using glue. It was
 a decent idea, but it left a gap between two signatures (In bookbinding, a
 section, gathering, or signature is a group of sheets folded in half.) . Still,
 I went with it for the first try.
 
 3D printed spine with two book signatures already sewn to it
 
 I laid everything down on the canvas that the book would be wrapped in and
 started assembling it. But I made a crucial mistake - I used super glue. It
 dries quickly, it is stiff, and doesn't glue 3D printed plastic well and it
 dissolved the paper I used. Long story short, I made a mess. But I didn't
 stress too much, I just proclaimed that version is a prototype and used it as a
 learning experience.
 
 I ordered proper bookbinding glue (PVA). While I was waiting for it, I focused
 on properly sewing the pages together.
 
 Sewing the pages[42] #
 
 The first time I sewed the pages together, I poked the holes by hand and they
 were somewhat uneven. Again, it was nothing major, but I didn't like it. So I
 designed and 3D printed a simple tool to help me drill the holes evenly.
 
 The tool has two parts, and the pages fit snugly between them. Both top and
 bottom parts have holes, so I was able to put the needle through and poke
 perfectly even holes in the pages. I'm very proud of this silly contraption.
 
 3D printed tool, closed, with needle poking through it
 
 3D printed tool, opened, with the sheet with sewing holes visible still in it
 
 Here you can see all of the eight sheets with sewing holes.
 
 All eight sheets with illustrations ready for sewing
 
 Fun fact, I designed all 3D parts using JavaScript and [43]Replicad library.
 Here is [44]a link if you want to play with the model in your browser.
 
 [45]Application showing code and the 3D model
 
 But I ditched the 3D printed spine and used the technique called pamphlet
 stitch, which works great when you have only two signatures. It made signatures
 way more tight than when I connected them separately to the 3D printed spine.
 
 Two book signatures sewn together using pamphlet stich
 
 Two book signatures opened at the exact point where they meet
 
 Glue arrived[46] #
 
 When the glue arrived, I plotted everything again and took it from the top. I
 swapped 3D printed sides for cardboard. Using proper glue was a game changer. I
 had enough time to apply it before it hardened, and when it dried it stayed
 flexible. And when it got onto my fingers, it was easy to remove. Everything
 was much cleaner, and I finally managed to put it all together.
 
 Unfortunately, I was rushing to finish the book, so I didn't take any photos of
 the process. But here are a few I do have:
 
 Cardboard sides laid out in the bookbinding canvas
 
 If you are an experienced bookbinder and reading this, I'm sorry for the
 bookbinding crimes I probably committed. I promise I won't use super glue
 again.
 
 The finished book[47] #
 
 It looked great! It was not perfect (more on that below), but I was super happy
 with how it turned out. It had a distinct handcrafted feel to it, the images
 turned out fantastic, and I think I really managed to bring out a personal
 touch with it.
 
 On the day I finished the book and gave it to my wife, we were both exhausted
 (our kid was teething, and we had a very rough night), so I thought she would
 appreciate a little pick-me-up.
 
 Book opened on the table showing the illustration of the family walking in the
 forrest
 
 When I gave it to her, the first thing she asked was, "Will I cry?". She was
 brave, but it definitely got her all mushy and made her day. After reading, she
 carefully put it on the shelf, out of the reach of the little one.
 
 Then I asked her if she ever suspected I was preparing a surprise for her, and
 she said that she had no idea. But she also said that she thought it was weird
 that I would often plot something and not brag about it to her afterwards. It
 was true, I love showing her my work, but luckily she didn't give it too much
 thought, and I was able to finish my secret project.
 
 Book opened on the table showing the illustration of Link from The Legend of
 Zelda
 
 One thing I would like to fix[48] #
 
 Like I mentioned, the book isn't perfect. The sides are a bit too large, so the
 pages seem too deep inside when the book is closed. For the same reason, the
 end pages turned out to be a bit short, which gives it a weird, uneven look. It
 is purely aesthetic, but I think it is the only thing keeping it from being
 perfect.
 
 Lesson learned if I ever end up doing something similar.
 
 Timeline[49] #
 
 It took way longer than it should have—it took me a month and a half to finish
 it. It took so long because I did it in secrecy, which meant working late in
 the evenings when my wife and kid were asleep. A bunch of little failures...
 ehm, I mean learning opportunities also prolonged the project. And finally, I
 had to order multiple things, so I was blocked a few times while I was waiting
 for four different deliveries.
 
 But the final assembly took me around two and a half hours from start to finish
 - plotting, cutting, sewing, and bookbinding. Mostly because I had already
 practiced all of them and defined the exact process.
 
 Conclusion[50] #
 
 It was so much fun. I love projects that span across multiple disciplines. This
 one touched AI, drawing, plotting, modeling, 3D printing, sewing, and
 bookbinding. I encountered a lot of little hiccups, but I also learned about
 all of them. Some of the errors I made could have been avoided if I had been
 more patient. But I hope you'll cut me some slack - I was super excited and
 eager to see how it would turn out, and I had limited time windows when I could
 do it in secrecy. Still, I need to take it as a lesson - being patient will
 help me save time when doing projects like this one.
 
 The highlight for me was that I could do it without an illustrator. Love it or
 hate it, AI ended up being a fantastic tool that filled the gap in my skill
 set, which was crucial for making the book.
 
 I hope you enjoyed this write-up as much as I enjoyed making the book and
 writing the post. And I do hope I inspired you to try making something of your
 own. If I did, please reach out on GitHub, I would love to see it.
 
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 References:
 
 [1] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#content
 [2] https://muffinman.io/
 [4] https://muffinman.io/art/
 [5] https://muffinman.io/blog/
 [6] https://muffinman.io/projects/
 [7] https://muffinman.io/about/
 [8] https://muffinman.io/stats/
 [12] https://muffinman.io/archive/#random
 [13] https://muffinman.io/img/tiny-book/the-book-02.jpg
 [14] https://muffinman.io/img/tiny-book/the-book-03.jpg
 [15] https://muffinman.io/img/tiny-book/the-book-04.jpg
 [16] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#the-idea
 [17] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#drawings
 [18] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#text
 [19] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#plotting
 [20] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#bookbinding
 [21] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#the-finished-book
 [22] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#timeline
 [23] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#conclusion
 [24] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#the-idea
 [25] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#drawings
 [26] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#midjourney
 [27] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#prompting
 [28] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#ai-to-plotter
 [29] https://www.instagram.com/p/CNJ_ZBOHZKj/
 [30] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#what-makes-centerline-tracing-different
 [31] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#cleaning-up
 [32] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#final-image-flow
 [33] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#never-stood-a-chance
 [34] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#text
 [35] https://wiki.evilmadscientist.com/Hershey_Text
 [36] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#plotting
 [37] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#technical-pen-to-the-rescue
 [38] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#smudged-drawings
 [39] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#bookbinding
 [40] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA2bjvOAzGw
 [41] https://www.rokolee.com/diy-miniature-hardback-book
 [42] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#sewing-the-pages
 [43] https://replicad.xyz/
 [44] https://studio.replicad.xyz/workbench?from-url=https://muffinman.io/img/tiny-book/model.js
 [45] https://studio.replicad.xyz/workbench?from-url=https://muffinman.io/img/tiny-book/model.js
 [46] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#glue-arrived
 [47] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#the-finished-book
 [48] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#one-thing-i-would-like-to-fix
 [49] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#timeline
 [50] https://muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/#conclusion
 [51] http://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A//muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/&t=The%20Tiny%20Book%20%20of%20Great%20Joys
 [52] http://twitter.com/share?text=The%20Tiny%20Book%20%20of%20Great%20Joys&url=https%3A//muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/
 [53] https://bsky.app/intent/compose?text=The%20Tiny%20Book%20%20of%20Great%20Joys%20https%3A//muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/
 [54] http://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A//muffinman.io/blog/the-tiny-book-of-great-joys/&title=The%20Tiny%20Book%20%20of%20Great%20Joys
 [55] https://muffinman.io/blog/letters-from-sarajevo/
 [56] https://muffinman.io/blog/bunny-jumps-again/
 [57] https://muffinman.io/blog/custom-giraffe-caret/
 [58] https://muffinman.io/atom.xml
 [59] https://muffinman.io/
 [60] https://muffinman.io/
 [61] https://muffinman.io/art/
 [62] https://muffinman.io/blog/
 [63] https://muffinman.io/projects/
 [64] https://muffinman.io/about/
 [65] https://muffinman.io/stats/
 [67] https://muffinman.io/
 [70] https://muffinman.io/art/
 [71] https://muffinman.io/blog/
 [72] https://muffinman.io/projects/
 [73] https://muffinman.io/about/
 [74] https://muffinman.io/stats/
 [75] https://muffinman.io/atom.xml
 [76] https://github.com/stanko/