Paperback

A paperback - in today's parlance - is a small-format, handy book with a flexible cover without a dust jacket in perfect binding (brochure), which is published at a relatively low price in often large print runs. Other characteristics are the small typeface with the narrow type area and the often woody, coarse paper, which, together with the high print run, enable a favourable sales price. The preferred printing process is offset printing. Paperbacks are also often published in thematically open series. In recent years - in the course of competition among publishers in the German-speaking world - the typeface and type area have been improved and the paper quality has also been increased. More and more original editions are appearing immediately in paperback.

In German - but not English - usage, a paperback is a large-format paperback or a paperback with a cover whose paper thickness is between that of a hardcover and a paperback.

Paperback books (initially often dime novels or everyday classic editions) were already being published in Germany and elsewhere in the 19th century. The originator of the paperback in its modern form is considered to be the Hamburg publisher Albatross Verlag, which for the first time produced new literature in an appealing layout for the mass market. Whereas until the second third of the 20th century it was mainly second or final uses of book titles that had previously been published elsewhere that predominated, the number of first publications in paperback has now increased sharply.

In historical usage, any manuscript or printed work in a handy format can also be called a paperback.

See also

• Letterpress
• Book cover
• Brochure
• Softcover (paperback book)
• Hardcover