The backside of a book is called Burchrück. This backside is visible when a book is on the shelf. The back of the book holds the book block by gluing or binding, and thus the individual pages of a book. A protective cover is often found around the back of the book, the folded ends of which are called flap text. The front of a book is called cover, front cover and front cover, the final book cover is called back cover.
A book back can be straight or rounded and usually bears as a label a reference to the title of the book, the author as well as the publisher. This label can be horizontal or vertical. In the case of a vertical inscription it is customary in the German book trade to label the spine from the bottom to the top. In the American market it is different.
Book of a book
Labeling the book back
As described, the label may be either horizontally, ie, from left to right, or perpendicular. If it is vertical, it can either be labeled from bottom to top or from top to bottom. Both variants have advantages, which is why the decision is rarely accidental.
In the German area, the spine is mostly horizontally, ie, from left to right, or from bottom to top. This is due to the fact that when the book is on the shelf, the title is generally better to read, as the book is usually viewed from the right, as the cover is also considered.
A further advantage is that the cover of the work is directly visible when it is pulled from a book shelf. Let’s read from the top down and pull the book out of the shelf, we’d only see the back cover. As a result, labeling from the bottom to the top facilitates finding a book in the bookcase.
In the American book trade and also in magazines and magazines, however, is often written from top to bottom. The idea here is that the lettering in a book stack is easier to read when the books or magazines are stacked in a bookstore. This approach is therefore more sales-oriented, with the book bridging in the stack being easier to read.
Overview: The most important and further notes on the topic
The book back is part of the cover of a book and holds the book block, ie the individual pages together. The cover consists of cover, back cover and the back. It is labeled either horizontally or vertically. In the case of vertical spelling in Germany, writing is mostly written from the bottom to the top.
In 1985 an international standard (ISO 6357, Spine titles on books and other publications) stipulated that the inscription had to be clockwise. However, hardly a publisher adheres to the rule. The labeling guideline has therefore not been adopted.
Note: The name is, by the way, a catastrophe. This means that a linguistic gap has been closed by a term from a remote meaning field. The back actually means an anatomical concept and was applied to the book. This is the same with the key beard and the table leg. (see neologism)