Yellow page color

April 10, 2008 2:09 PM

In the 60's (I think) and 70's paperback books used to come with the outside edges of the pages sometimes colored yellow. This doesn't seem like it is done anymore. Why is that? Why was it done in the first place?
posted by josher71 to Grab Bag (23 answers total)

That's the acid in the paper and it happens over time. It will happen eventually to mass market books purchased today.

Not a feature, unless you consider self-destruction a feature.
posted by Toekneesan at 2:15 PM on April 10, 2008

At first I thought of what Toekneesan said, then I wondered if you're talking about a shiny gold coating literally on the outside edges of the pages, so that the outsides of the book look pretty and shiny.

That's done so that the outsides of the book look pretty and shiny.

I imagine that's still being done in high-quality gift-type books.
posted by JimN2TAW at 2:20 PM on April 10, 2008

But you don't put gilt edges on paperbacks, only hardcovers, so I don't think josher is talking about gilt. The acid discoloration is the likely culprit.
posted by Justinian at 2:23 PM on April 10, 2008

No, I know what you mean -- I don't think it was the acid in the page (per Toekneesan), and it definitely wasn't gilt-edging (per JimN2TAW); it was more of a bright yellow, like a highlighting pen was drawn across the edge. I remember getting paperbacks in the '70s that were new (or new-ish), and they had that colored edge. Other books didn't have them.
posted by scody at 2:25 PM on April 10, 2008

And now that I think about it, I seem to recall some paperbacks where the color wasn't even yellow. I seem to recall my parents' copy of Candy (ooh, dirty!) having the edges colored blue.
posted by scody at 2:27 PM on April 10, 2008

No, they used to come like that - a brightish yellow or even a red color, but I've seen a blue and a weak green. It usually wasn't shiny or golden, it reminded me of pollen. It's not acid discoloration. We did it in Europe too, and I remember liking that sometimes when I got a new book, the color would come off on my fingers a little.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 2:27 PM on April 10, 2008

Yes, some were green or blue as well. It's simply a binding technique, a decoration. Sometimes it was used to mark editions of a certain trade paperback, and originally it was done with gilt in hardbound books to protect the edges of the paper. I always assumed it was to help prevent some of the acid discoloration that Toekneesan was referring to, but later I learned that it really had no purpose other than aesthetics.
posted by annathea at 2:27 PM on April 10, 2008

I know what you mean (it's not age and it's not the gold/shiny edge that some books have). I think the yellow and sometimes it was orangey red was just decorative, though, similar to the gold/shiny, but it wasn't used on fancy books; it was commonly found on pulp novels and paperbacks. I guess it was an easy expense to eliminate.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 2:28 PM on April 10, 2008

The edges of mass market paperbacks were sometimes yellow or red. It was in emulation of higher-end hardcover books, which had colors or sometimes marbling on the edges.
posted by theora55 at 2:30 PM on April 10, 2008

Having opened my box of old paperbacks, I see that there are indeed a lot of mid 70s books with uniform yellow edges that can't be explained by acid deterioration. Rather ugly if you ask me but clearly deliberate.
posted by Justinian at 2:30 PM on April 10, 2008

Nthing not due to discoloration/acid content--I have a few green ones. As far as *why* it was done? No clue.
posted by LionIndex at 2:36 PM on April 10, 2008

I seem to remember that science fiction paperbacks published by Del Rey (as sold at elementary scool book fairs in the 70s) used to come this way. I defy you to find an Alan Dean Foster paperback from this era without the yellow coloring.
posted by A Long and Troublesome Lameness at 2:40 PM on April 10, 2008

I don't remember the answer to this, but I do remember that it's in one of David Feldman's early Imponderables books, maybe this one or this one.
posted by clavicle at 2:47 PM on April 10, 2008

I have some red ones as well.

Publishers do weird things to the edges of books though. I forget the term for it, but there are books where they won't cut each of the pages even, but just leave them ragged. It's usually on more "literary" books.

It could get annoying when I worked at a chain bookstore as customers would think their book was "broken."
posted by drezdn at 2:51 PM on April 10, 2008

Also, some paperbacks came with ads in them. Cardboardy ads that were connected kind of like those blow-in subscription cards in magazines...remember that?
posted by GaelFC at 2:55 PM on April 10, 2008 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I remember reading about this in the book Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise. Basically, publishers did it to make their books look prettier when using cheap paper, and some publishers used signature colors so people could identify them on the shelf. Dell was blue, Bantam was yellow, and Pocket Books was red.
posted by zsazsa at 2:59 PM on April 10, 2008 [7 favorites]

drezdn - Deckle edges?

As far as I know edge staining is just for looks. More on it here.
posted by waterlily at 3:04 PM on April 10, 2008

I am looking at a green edged paperback at this very moment. (The Jungle Books - Dell, printed in 1964). It was definitely something deliberately applied. There's a bit of irregular bleed into the edge of some of the pages. I can only assume it was a design element.

Ah, zsazsa says my Dell should be blue. Yeah, it's in that fuzzy area between blue and green.
posted by Naberius at 3:06 PM on April 10, 2008

Oh, and publishers have been decorating page edges for a long time
posted by waterlily at 3:15 PM on April 10, 2008

True, but this was publisher-specific color-coding, as zsazsa describes.
posted by Rash at 3:31 PM on April 10, 2008

<Rank Speculation>
I wonder if it has something to do with remaindered books. I remember that comics used to come in two types: Those with a UPC symbol and those that had a placeholder graphic. One could be returned to the publisher if it didn't sell while the other couldn't. Possibly the colored edges were similar. There's little information on remainders or stripped books on Wikipedia though.
</Rank Speculation>
posted by lekvar at 3:55 PM on April 10, 2008

My uncle has been in the book buying/publishing business for 30 years and zsazsa has the right answer.
posted by parilous at 4:47 PM on April 10, 2008

drezdn, when I ordered it, they called it "rough front," and it's kind of a pain to do but it looks "olde fashioned" and "classy."
posted by rikschell at 5:24 PM on April 10, 2008