Day Fifteen of the CMLE Summer Fun Library Tour!

Bookstack

We all know that book sizes are important; if you have done any shelving at all, you know that a non-standard book size will throw off your entire shelf. It’s frustrating for shelvers everywhere – but books of different sizes can be fascinating for readers! Our eyes are drawn to things that are different from all the other materials around it, so a non-standard size book may be more likely to get checked out – a great outcome for libraries!

But did you know that there are names for all those different sizes?? I had no idea there were so many different classifications for book sizes! (Of course, we are in the classification profession; so it’s probably not a surprise that we can even break down book sizes so carefully!)

Check out this chart from the ALA by way of Wikipedia :

“The following table is adapted from the scale of the American Library Association,[1][13] in which size refers to the dimensions of the cover (trimmed pages will be somewhat smaller, often by about ¼ inch or 5 mm[2]). The words before octavo signify the traditional names for unfolded paper sheet sizes. Other dimensions may exist as well.[12][14]

Book formats and corresponding sizes
Name Abbreviations Leaves Pages Approximate cover size (width × height)
inches cm
folio or fo 2 4 12 × 19 30.5 × 48
quarto or 4to 4 8 9½ × 12 24 × 30.5
Imperial octavo or 8vo 8 16 8¼ × 11½ 21 × 29
Super octavo or 8vo 8 16 7 × 11 18 × 28
Royal octavo or 8vo 8 16 6½ × 10 16.5 × 25
Medium octavo or 8vo 8 16 6½ × 9¼ 16.5 × 23.5
octavo or 8vo 8 16 6 × 9 15 × 23
Crown octavo or 8vo 8 16 5⅜ × 8 13.5 × 20
duodecimo or twelvemo 12º or 12mo 12 24 5 × 7⅜ 12.5 × 19
sextodecimo or sixteenmo 16º or 16mo 16 32 4 × 6¾ 10 × 17
octodecimo or eighteenmo 18º or 18mo 18 36 4 × 6½ 10 × 16.5
trigesimo-secundo or thirty-twomo 32º or 32mo 32 64 3½ × 5½ 9 × 14
quadragesimo-octavo or forty-eightmo 48º or 48mo 48 96 2½ × 4 6.5 × 10
sexagesimo-quarto or sixty-fourmo 64º or 64mo 64 128 2 × 3 5 × 7.5