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Springfold Paper/All plans/Printable templates/2026-09

Leporello Card: 630 mm, Six Panels, One Fold Rule

A concertina card lives or dies on one thing: the folds have to alternate and every panel has to be exactly the same width. This one is cut as a single 630 mm strip — no joins — scored on a 700 mm board, and closed by a sleeve rather than an envelope.

2026-09-02By The Paper StudioProjectFolded 105 × 148 mm, open 630 mm220 gsmWRAP BAND

Difficulty 2/5 Working time 55 min
WRAP BAND — Cut plan — Leporello Card: 630 mm, Six Panels, One Fold Rule
WRAP BAND · Cut planFolded 105 × 148 mm, open 630 mm
Leporello Card: 630 mm, Six Panels, One Fold Rule — One strip, cut from A2 — never join two sheets
PLAN CLOSE-UP 01 · left third of the sheet · 288 x 148 mm of sheet
Step 01 / 04

One strip, cut from A2 — never join two sheets

A 630 mm card has to come off an A2 sheet in one piece. Joining two 315 mm halves gives you a card whose fifth fold sits on a glued seam, and that fold will never match the others: the seam adds 0.4 mm of thickness and the accordion closes unevenly from that point on.

Cut with the rotary cutter against a 600 mm rule in one pass, and accept that the last 30 mm needs a second pass from the other end. Overlap the two passes by 100 mm and use the same edge of the rule both times.

Leporello Card: 630 mm, Six Panels, One Fold Rule — Alternate the folds, and keep the pitch honest
PLAN CLOSE-UP 02 · middle of the sheet · 288 x 148 mm of sheet
Step 02 / 04

Alternate the folds, and keep the pitch honest

Score at 105, 210, 315, 420 and 525 mm, then fold valley, mountain, valley, mountain, valley. The first and last folds must be the same direction or the card cannot close: one end will always stand open by a panel width.

Measure each score from the same end rather than stepping along with a gauge. Five steps with a 0.5 mm error each is 2.5 mm on the last fold, and a leporello whose panels differ by 2.5 mm will not stand up when opened out.

Leporello Card: 630 mm, Six Panels, One Fold Rule — Fold with the score on the outside of every turn
PLAN CLOSE-UP 03 · right third of the sheet · 288 x 148 mm of sheet
Step 03 / 04

Fold with the score on the outside of every turn

For an accordion the crease must always be on the outside of the fold, so fold each panel over the top of the previous one and press the crease with the folder before moving on. Folding panel by panel in the air produces a card whose panels twist relative to each other.

Work through the whole card twice: the first pass to set the direction of every fold, the second to sharpen them. This is a 90-second job on the second pass and it is the difference between a card that stands open in a zigzag and one that flops.

Leporello Card: 630 mm, Six Panels, One Fold Rule — Close it with a sleeve, not an envelope
WRAP BAND
Step 04 / 04

Close it with a sleeve, not an envelope

Form the 330 × 152 mm band around the folded card, crease all three folds, and weight it for ten minutes. A sleeve keeps the accordion compressed, whereas an envelope lets the card open slightly and the corners of the outer panels take a set.

The 45 mm thumb cut-out goes in the middle of the sleeve opening. Without it the sleeve has to be shaken off, and shaking a leporello open is how the sixth fold gets creased in the wrong direction.

Specification

Card630 × 148 mm, six 105 mm panels
Folded size105 × 148 mm — A6, fits a standard envelope
Card stock220 gsm; at 300 gsm the sixth fold will not lie flat
Sleeve330 × 152 mm band, three creases
Working time55 minutes, 20 of them scoring and folding
Blank size654 x 148 mm
Pieces1
Assembled630 mm wrap, 148 mm high

Fold order

LineKindAngle
Five accordion creases at 105 mm, alternating valley and mountain alternating alternating
Two end panels, valley, 12 mm, folded back so the card closes on itself valley 180°
Sleeve band, mountain, three creases at 100 mm pitch mountain 90°

Cut list

  1. Card strip, 630 × 148 mm — cut as one piece from A2, never joined
  2. End panels, 12 mm, trimmed after folding to 2 mm clearance
  3. Sleeve band, 330 × 152 mm, with a 45 mm thumb cut-out
  4. Six 4 mm notch pairs for the fold locks

Check the plan against the object

Leporello Card: 630 mm, Six Panels, One Fold Rule — Assembled
Assembled630 mm wrap, 148 mm high

What goes wrong

  • Joining two sheets to make 630 mm. The fifth fold sits on the seam and never matches the rest.
  • Stepping the pitch along with a gauge, so the last panel is 2.5 mm wider than the first.
  • Using 300 gsm card. Six folds at 300 gsm will not close flat.

Keep it clean

  • Store the card closed in its sleeve, standing. Lying flat, the top panel takes the set of whatever it rests on.
  • Never open it past flat. Opening a leporello to more than 180° puts a reverse crease in the two end folds.
  • If a fold goes soft, re-score it rather than folding harder — 220 gsm card cracks along a crease that has been forced.

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