Parts of a Hardcover Book – 13 Labeled, Spine to Flyleaf

All 13 parts on the diagram

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The 8 main parts 8

Spine Covers the folded backs of the pages; it shows on the shelf.
Front cover A stiff board wrapped in cloth, paper or leather.
Dust jacket A detachable paper wrapper that protects the cover.
Jacket flap Folds round the cover's edge; often carries the blurb.
Head The top edge of the book.
Tail The bottom edge of the book.
Fore edge The edge of the pages opposite the spine.
Text block All the pages sewn or glued together, the body of the book.

Binding details 5

Headband A band at the head of the spine. The one at the foot is a tailband.
Joint Where the cover meets the spine; the book bends here.
Squares How far covers stand past pages at head, tail and fore edge.
Pastedown The half of the endpaper glued inside the cover.
Flyleaf The free half of the endpaper, the first page you turn.

How this list was compiled: Read 2026-09-23. (1) Matt T. Roberts and Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, on Conservation OnLine: spine https://cool.culturalheritage.org/don/dt/dt3248.html, book jacket https://cool.culturalheritage.org/don/dt/dt0421.html, endpapers https://cool.culturalheritage.org/don/dt/dt1192.html, fly leaf https://cool.culturalheritage.org/don/dt/dt1380.html, headband https://cool.culturalheritage.org/don/dt/dt1721.html, joint https://cool.culturalheritage.org/don/dt/dt1929.html, fore edge https://cool.culturalheritage.org/don/dt/dt1410.html, head https://cool.culturalheritage.org/don/dt/dt1720.html, tail https://cool.culturalheritage.org/don/dt/dt3436.html, text block https://cool.culturalheritage.org/don/dt/dt3476.html, squares https://cool.culturalheritage.org/don/dt/dt3289.html, case https://cool.culturalheritage.org/don/dt/dt0595.html. (2) Douglas Cockerell, Bookbinding, and the Care of Books (1901), Project Gutenberg #26672, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26672: boards, the back, headbands, end papers and the paste-down, joints, head, tail and fore-edge, squares. (3) Wikipedia: Bookbinding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookbinding (spine, endpaper, flap, head, fore edge, tail, gutter, book block), Endpaper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endpaper (pastedown and flyleaf), Hardcover https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardcover (dust jacket and its flaps), Dust jacket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_jacket. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site by script, 2026-09-23. Licence: own work

How it works

The parts of a hardcover book: a spine and two covers wrapped round the text block, often a dust jacket over them, and the endpapers inside. Its three edges are the head, the tail and the fore edge.

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The outside

The spine faces out on the shelf and the fore edge is opposite it. The covers stand a little past the pages all round; bookbinders call that margin the squares. The joint is where a cover bends against the spine, and a headband sits at the top of the spine.

Inside the cover

Open the front cover and the endpaper is the first thing you see: one half, the pastedown, is glued to the cover, and the other half, the flyleaf, is the first free page. The text block of printed pages follows.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a book called?

Outside: the spine, the front and back covers, and the head, tail and fore edge. Inside: the endpapers (pastedown and flyleaf) and the text block. A hardcover often wears a dust jacket with flaps.

What is the difference between a pastedown and a flyleaf?

Both are halves of the same endpaper. The pastedown is glued flat to the inside of the cover; the flyleaf is left free and is the first page you turn.

What is the fore edge of a book?

The edge of the pages opposite the spine, the side you open the book from. The top edge is the head and the bottom edge is the tail.