This post is especially for my Youtube friend WW! But you might find it useful too.

The “little white books” (guidebooks) for tarot decks printed by Lo Scarabeo are generally printed in six languages–English, Italian, Spanish, French, German, and Portuguese. I was asked how one might go about removing the non-English portions to make the guidebook smaller and easier to flip through. I gave it a try with my little white book from the Mibramig Tarot, and turns out it’s pretty simple! This technique should also work for any of the included languages–just keep the pages printed in your language of choice.

Here’s what it will look like:

Step 1: Remove the staples

Use a screwdriver or needle nose pliers to gently lift the staples from the inside and remove them.

Step 2: Select your preferred pages

Take out the pages written in your preferred language. Make sure to include the cover as well! Discard the rest. You should now have your preferred language on half of the remaining pages and leftovers from another language on the other half.

Step 3: Cut off the excess

On the page with your non preferred language, use a straightedge to draw a guideline as close as possible to the text. We’re gonna use this extra margin to protect our binding. Flatten out the pages as much as possible, then cut along the line. (You might want to do this in batches of a few pages at a time). Discard the extra.

Step 4: Restaple!

Staple the booklet as close to the original staple holes as you can. And then you’re done! You can also open the booklet and crease each page open so it’ll stay flat while you’re reading it.

I imagine you could also make a sturdier cover+back cover if you wanted to by measuring two pieces of cardstock to be the same size as the pages and stapling those in as well!

Hope this is helpful!

–W

Image from English Book-Plates, Ancient and Modern (1893). https://archive.org/details/englishbookplate00castrich