Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book from a number of fold ed or unfolded sheets of paper or other material.

It usually involves attaching a book cover to the resulting text-block. Before the computer age, the bookbindi ng trade involved two divisions: letterpress binding and stationery binding. Sta tionery or vellum binding deals with making new books intended to be written int o it such as accounting ledgers, business journals, and guest log books along wi th other general office stationery such as note books, manifold books, portfolio s, and etc. Whereas letterpress binding deals with making new books intended to be read from and includes fine binding, library binding, edition binding, and pu blisher's bindings.[1] A result of the new bindings is a third division dealing with the repair, restoration, and conservation of old used bindings. With the di gital age, personal computers have replaced the pen and ink based accounting tha t used to drive most of the work in stationery binding. Today bookbinding is div ided between hand binding by an individual craftsman versus mass produced bindin gs by high speed machines in a bindery factory.