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Many old books include publisher's catalogues of other books at the end, which include some abbreviations, such as 4to, 6mo, 8vo, 12mo, 16mo etc., which indicate the dimensions of the book.

Printers started with a standard paper sheet size. To get a page size smaller than the sheet they would print multiple pages on the same sheet and then fold the sheet. If it is folded once then it forms 2 leaves of the book, each of which has a page on each side, so it holds 4 pages per sheet. To get smaller formats from the same paper size it is simply folded more times.

• Folio (f) has 1 fold, 2 leaves, 4 pages, per sheet.
• Quarto (q, 4to) has 2 folds, 4 leaves, 8 pages
• Sexto or Six-mo (6mo) has 3 folds, 6 leaves, 12 pages
• Octavo (8vo, 8^o [which would be proofed 8^o]) has 3 folds, 8 leaves, 16 pages
• Duodecimo or Twelve-mo (12mo) has 4 folds, 12 leaves, 24 pages
• Sextodecimo (16mo) has 4 folds, 16 leaves, 32 pages

All larger sizes are abbreviated XXmo; only the 4to and 8vo abbreviations have different suffixes.

"Crown 8vo," etc., refer to a different starting paper size.

After printing the sheet is folded to form a section (or signature) and the edges trimmed to separate the individual leaves. If two leaves are still connected on an edge then in the book trade they are "unopened", but in common usage they are "uncut" (which means something else to a book dealer).

At the bottom of the front page of a section or signature the printer may include a mark to help in the final assembly of the book. For example, in a octavo book, every sixteenth page may have a letter at the bottom (A, B, C ...) which we delete in the proofing process, since it is not part of the text.

See Also

• A dictionary of the terminology from Stanford
• ABAA glossary
• Wikipedia has articles on Bookbinding and Paper size that give much more detail.
• This page was mainly extracted from this forum thread.