Why is it that at the end of books, there are completely blank pages? I got thinking about this when I looked at Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and found at least 8 blank pages in the back of the book.
Blank PAGES in Books
Sorry 'bout that.
Books are make up from a signature, such as an eight page signature or a sixteen page signature, always an even number.
Depending on the bindry equipment, maybe they can’t use less than a full signature. So if a book uses three pages of the last signature, the bindry has to put in a full signature, which would be five blank pages in an eight page signature.
I’m leaving my signature line off on this one
Most books are typically printed in large sheets (“signatures”) or from paper rolls that allow for several pages to be printed at once. They are then collated, cut and bound.
If the large sheet holds 16 final pages, then the final book must have a multiple of 16. (They could remove the blank pages after cutting, but why bother?) Sometimes when the book is formatted before going to press, the data is spread or condensed to exactly match the 16-page layout, but not always.