Book Resources

Types of Book

Types of Books

There is an extensive variety of different types of books which each complement specific content and styles. Ranging from Catalogues & Magazines, to Graphic novels and photobooks, the diversities of these categories are discussed in detail in this section and will help you make an educated and informed decision.

Functions

A book’s overall function can suit different styles of binding, printing types and sizes. A catalogue or a brochure for example with a promotional aim would usually adhere to a perfect bound or flexible style for ease of distribution and legibility. A Photo Book or Art book with an aim to display photos in a beautiful way, would opt for glossy pages to display rich colours and a more classic hardbound binding to protect interiors. 

In these sections we describe and present the different types of books that are most commonly avaliable, and discuss their aesthetical appearances in terms of what paper they use, what printing types are most common and how they ultimately come together as publications. Each book type has a set of unique design choices that need to be made and processes to follow.

Left Image: Fiction Book, Hard bound with screenprinted cover and black and white text interior. Right Image: Hardback Art Book, with glossy CMYK printed inserts.

Above: Photo Book Interior with CMYK printing on Silk paper.

Things to Consider

When looking through the different book types, a basic but important question to ask yourself is what type of category does your book fall into? Then once you’ve decided on your category there a variety of choices that need to be made such as, ‘How many books do i want to make?’, ‘What is my budget?’ ‘ What texture, colours and printing quality do I want?’.  After making these choices, there are unique processes and steps to follow in order to make a successful publication.