MICROBOOKS GENERATION

Turn one simple sheet of paper into a little awesome book


We're currently developing the «PliegO'Maker»: once a user has submitted a short text or a pre-formatted PDF, it can be automatically paged and outlined as a ready-to-print micro-book on two sides of the same paper (duplex) -then folded, cut and read.

Features

One paper, one book

A “pliego” is a simple sheet of paper that once folded turns into a microbook (a real pocket-size one, indeed). It only needs a printer, a little do-it-yourself and an average 10 minutes for reading it.

Easy text editor

We are working on the best online editing experience possible, so you can use any screen to layout your text. Just write or copy & paste your paragraphs and images, and we do the rest!

Share & enjoy

PliegOS is also a marketplace for flash fiction, receipts, microfanzines, poetry, educational materials and any other content you want to share with the world or even sell per unit (one book, one buck :)

Read the web offline

In parallel, we are creating a Firefox extension. Reading online is fine, but some contents deserve a time and place away from the screen. Why not distributing nice posts this way, for example, so they can be read in public spaces?

For collectors

Are you a collector freak like us? Then the premium option is your stuff: buy a pliego but forget about printing. We will do it for you in the best quality paper and a send it via cool classic postal service (or drones, when we get some).

Advertise as local sponsor

For some special pliegos save a space at the back cover for geolocated advertising, mainly for SME and local commerces who can share their love for culture this way. Get in touch with us if you're interested, you will only pay per confirmed prints.

Samples

Some samples of pliegos you can just download, print and enjoy

TAKE CARE

Essay

Bernard Stiegler is probably one of today’s most prolific and interesting philosophers. Here’s the transcription of one of his talks.

DESHISTORIA DE AMOR

Flash fiction

A love story with short sentences, mixing rage, loneliness and other summer feelings.

L'ESQUIROL MUSSOL

Kids

A story about a strange animal, with text and illustrations combined as a collaborative effort.

SOM-HI DRAGONS!

FLASH FICTION

A short story about the right to disobey and the dragon inside each of us.

About

The pliegos concept is not new at all, just a 2.0 times version of something that dates back to the first presses, and the way popular fiction was cheaply distributed through the city streets in the beginnings of the Gutenberg era.

Origins

A pliego ("quarto" in English, "papel volante" in Portuguese) was the earliest known European printed book format. The first pliego, the Sibyllenbuch, is believed to have been printed by Gutenberg in 1452–53, before the Gutenberg Bible, surviving only as a fragment. As a continuation of Western traditions of popular literature, such as chapbooks and popular print, his genre was found in Spain and Portugal during the 18th and 19th centuries, and offered readers a wide array of topics, from basic instruction to political tracts.

Project concept

The idea has to do with an unusual finding: an old suitcase abandoned in a family garage. Inside, a collection of nearly 200 Catalan pliegos from between 1910 and 1915, that were produced by a nearly one-person publishing company, Patufet. This nearly yellow pages, folded and cut the same way we do here (some of them also nicely together with a red thread) tell the story of many many handmade stories and covers, thanks to the infinite imagination of Josep Mª Folch i Torres.

Contributors

  • Enric Senabre Hidalgo
  • David Gómez Fontanills
  • Marcantoni Malagarriga-i-Picas
  • Mònica Garriga
  • Damià Casas
  • Contact

    •  Proudly made in busy Barcelona