Physical description is the part of cataloging that requires a ruler, some patience, and a willingness to count pages in Roman numerals. It's also the part that tells a buyer, a librarian, or a future you exactly what the object looks like.
Height, Width, and Depth
Shelvd records dimensions in millimeters. Measure the binding, not the text block:
- Height: The vertical measurement of the book standing upright. Measure from head to tail. This is the primary bibliographic measurement.
- Width: The horizontal measurement from spine to fore-edge at the widest point.
- Depth: The thickness from spine to fore-edge (optional, but useful for shelf planning).
A standard modern octavo might be 220 × 145 × 25 mm. A folio could be 380 × 260 × 50 mm. Your grandmother's pocket prayer book might be 95 × 65 × 12 mm.
Weight
Weight in grams. Optional but useful for shipping calculations, insurance, and identifying variant editions (a book that's 200g heavier than expected might have different paper stock).
Pagination
This is where cataloging becomes an art form. Pagination describes the page count using the standard bibliographic notation:
- Roman numerals for preliminary pages: i–xvi
- Arabic numerals for the main text: 1–352
- Square brackets for unnumbered pages: [4] leaves of plates
- Leaves vs. pages: a leaf has two sides; a page is one side
Example: xvi, 352 p., [8] leaves of plates
This means: 16 preliminary pages numbered in Roman, 352 text pages in Arabic, and 8 unnumbered leaves of plates.
Don't be intimidated. For most modern books, just count the last numbered page: "352 p." is perfectly fine.
Format
Bibliographic format refers to how the original sheets were folded:
- Folio (2°) — folded once: 2 leaves, 4 pages per sheet
- Quarto (4°) — folded twice: 4 leaves, 8 pages
- Octavo (8°) — folded three times: 8 leaves, 16 pages
- Duodecimo (12mo) — four folds: 12 leaves
Shelvd has 76 formats in its database, from broadsheet to 128mo. The Format dropdown lists them all with their standard abbreviations.
Important: format is about how the book was manufactured, not how big it is. A large octavo and a small quarto can be the same height. The format tells you about the printing, not the shelf space.
Volumes
If the work spans multiple physical volumes, record the count: "3" means three physical books. Combined with the title ("Works of Shakespeare, Vol. II"), this lets you track multi-volume sets accurately.
Collation and Signatures
For advanced bibliographic description, the Signatures field records how gatherings are signed: A–Z⁸, Aa–Cc⁸. This is the fingerprint of how the book was physically constructed — essential for identifying editions of hand-press books and fascinating to approximately seven people per country.
Images
Photographs of your book live in their own Images section on the edit page, separate from the physical description fields. Each uploaded image is labeled with a specific book part (title page, frontispiece, binding detail, etc.) from a list of 51 types. This isn't just gallery management — labeled images make your catalog entries more useful for buyers, insurers, and researchers.
For the full guide to what to photograph and how to label it, see Photographing Your Books.
📖 Related on the blog: Book Formats