Booksellers Abbreviations

Japanese Vellum - Smooth yellowish hand made paper produced in Japan from the bark of the Mulberry.
Japon - Imitation Japanese Vellum.

Kraft Paper - Strong brown paper made from sulphate pulp. Often used for wrapping parcels.

Laid Down - Backed with a stronger paper, or other material.
Laid Paper - Paper which shows the characteristic parallel wire marks of early papers made by hand with a wire mesh tray.
Large Paper - Special paper that is larger (and usually better) than the rest of the edition.
Levant - A highly polished, loose grained Morocco.
Library Binding - A basic or plain binding used by libraries where continual usage may cause wear to the original binding.
Limited Edition - An edition that has a restricted print run, this limitation is usually expressed as a fraction.
Linson - Paper used in binding, often grained to look like cloth or leather.
LITHO - Lithograph
Lithograph - An image printed by lithography, a chemical method of printing (originally from stone) using the principle of the mutual repulsion of oil and water. Invented by Aloys Senefelder in 1798.
LTD ED - Limited Edition

Margin - The unprinted space between the text and the edge of the page.
Marginalia - Handwritten comments made in the margin.
Mezzotint - A distinctive form of engraving, richly black and textured, in which the plate is worked from dark to light.
Miniature - Used in this context to denote books below 2ins (or 5cm) high.
Misbound - Bound in the wrong order or place.
Monograph - A publication dealing with one single artist.
Morocco - An elegant and durable goatskin much used in bookbinding, originally imported from North Africa.
Ms., Mss - Manuscript, Manuscripts.
ND, n-d - No Date (usually of publication)
Niger - A soft goatskin with no pronounced grain.
NP, n-pl - Depending on context, either, No Publisher, No Printer, or No Place (of publication).

Oasis - A smooth African goatskin, tanned and dyed in the UK.
Oblong - Where a books height is exceeded by the width.
Octavo (8vo) - The most common of the traditional book formats, made up of sheets folded three times, giving eight leaves, or sixteen pages.
Offprint - A separately printed section of a book or publication, usually an individual article or essay.
Offsetting - A shadow of the print that has transferred to the facing page.
OP, OOP - Out-of-Print.

Pagination - The sequential numbering of pages.
Parchment - The dressed undersplit of sheepskin.
Parts - A once popular method of publishing, whereby a publication is issued in parts, intended to be bound together on completion.
Perfect Binding - A method of binding where the edge of loose sheets are dipped in adhesive and put in a cover, often in cheap paperbacks.
Plate - (i) An image printed separately from the text, often on different or higher quality paper. (ii) The printing plate from which an image is produced.
PP - Pages; p (and then the number) for page; /pp for pages - to
PPB, PB - Paperback
PPD - Postpaid
PR - Printing
Prelims - Preliminaries. All the pages (including title page, contents etc) preceding the actual text.
Presentation Copy - A gift from the author, illustrator, editor or publisher, often signed or inscribed.
Private Press - A traditional hand press owned and operated in the interests of fine printing. Today used as a term for very small, independent publishers.
PSEUD - Pseudonym
PUB - Published/publisher