It measures approximately twelve inches in height by about nine or so wide; in book terms, this is termed a Crown Quarto. Crown size is simply the next size up from the standard quarto.
Although no longer as frequently used as the Crown Octavo format, Crown Quartos were popularly utilized for hardbound children’s books and other titles of smaller dimensions. It provided room for more pictures or writing per page — perfect for kids!
Crown Quartos aren’t as prevalent today as once, but you can find them now and then in old books. Occasionally, they are utilized for special printings and/or limited releases due to the slightly bigger format.
Crown quartos are usually big books (hence their size classification as quartos) and are generally hardbound. They are generally larger than the normal paperback books and have at least four sides, hence the name “quarto.” The pages of a crown quarto are approximately 10″ x 15″. Crown quartos are usually printed with books intended for prolonged reading — textbooks, handbooks, and reference books. Because they are bigger, Crown quartos are generally more costly to print and tend to be published by larger publishers.
What they call Crown Quarto is a new kind of book publication — not done by the old publisher, who published the original version of the book. OysterBooks aims to change how books are launched and marketed to make them more affordable and accessible. It’s also actively pursuing getting the books into the hands of disabled populations.
The Crown Quarto was a very significant advancement both in terms of book and publishing history. This enabled the production of books more cheaply and quickly than previously possible. As a result, the reading rates also increased, and the printing cost dropped.
