Colophon
Quick answer: A colophon is a note in a book describing how it was made: the typeface, paper and printer. Learn its history and why poetry presses still include one.
A colophon is a short statement in a book describing how the physical object was made: the typeface it is set in, sometimes the paper, the printer, the designer and the size of the print run. It traditionally appears on the final page, though modern publishers often fold its contents into the copyright page at the front. The word also names a publisher's emblem, the small device stamped on a spine or title page.
Poets meet colophons more than most writers because poetry publishing keeps one foot in the fine-press tradition, where the book as object is part of the art. Letterpress chapbooks, limited editions and small-press collections still carry loving colophons, and reading them is a quiet education in how books are actually made.
A Short History
Before title pages existed, the end of a book was where its facts lived. Medieval scribes closed manuscripts with a note recording who copied the text, where and when, occasionally adding complaints about cold hands. Early printers inherited the habit: fifteenth-century volumes ended with the printer's name, city and date, along with the device that identified the workshop. When title pages arrived and moved that information to the front, the colophon survived as a courtesy, and later as a craft signature, especially in fine printing.
What a Modern Colophon Says
A typical trade-book colophon is one modest sentence, something like: this book is set in Bembo, a typeface based on the roman cut by Francesco Griffo in 1495. Fine-press poetry editions go further, naming the paper stock, the binding method, the press, and the edition size, of which this is copy 61 of 150, often signed. Some publishers also use colophon to mean their logo, and web designers borrowed the word for the about-this-site page, so context decides which sense is meant.
Why Poets Should Care
Partly literacy, partly pleasure. If you ever publish a chapbook, a printer will ask questions the colophon teaches you to answer: typeface, paper weight, edition size. Typography also genuinely serves poems, since line breaks, indents and white space are the poem's notation, and a well-chosen face renders them cleanly. A poet who can read a colophon chooses better-made homes for their work.
What poets can take from this
- Check the last page and the copyright page; colophons hide in both places.
- Note the typefaces named in books whose pages you find beautiful, and reuse them.
- When self-publishing a chapbook, write a colophon; it signals care to reviewers and buyers.
- In limited editions, the colophon's edition number affects collectability, so state it accurately.
- Remember the word's second sense: a publisher's emblem is also called a colophon.
Try it yourself
Write a poem in the form of a colophon for your own life so far: what you were set in, what stock you were printed on, the size of the edition, the errors the printer chose to keep.
Questions
What is the difference between a colophon and a masthead?
A colophon describes how a book or publication was physically made, while a masthead lists the people who edit and run it. One documents production, the other personnel.
Where is the colophon in a modern book?
Traditionally on the very last page, though many publishers now put production details on the copyright page at the front. Fine-press and limited editions almost always keep the back-page tradition.
Do all books have colophons?
No. Mass-market books often omit them entirely. They persist in literary publishing, fine printing and poetry editions, where the object's craft is part of the appeal.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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