Definition
Dust jacket
A dust jacket is the printed paper wrapper folded around a hardback, with flaps carrying the blurb and author biography. The case underneath is usually plain cloth or board.
A jacket is laid out as one continuous sheet: front flap, front, spine, back, back flap, with the fold positions determined by the board size and the spine width. The flaps do commercial work — the front flap carries the selling description, the back flap the author photograph and biography. Print-on-demand hardbacks are typically case-laminate, meaning the artwork is printed directly onto the board and there is no jacket at all.
Related tools & guides
A print-ready interior, checked
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