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The front and back covers of hardback books. Modern bookbinders most often use a product called binder's board for this purpose. Binder's board consists of pulped or laminated fibrous materials pressed into large, flat sheets, which are then cut to size and covered with cloth, leather, paper, or other materials, to form the covers.
The term "boards" derives from the ancient practice of putting the loose leaves of manuscripts between heavy boards to keep them flat and protect the edges. In time it became more useful to join the leaves and boards into an integrated unit and cover them with leather. The most common wood used for this purpose was oak.
Boards are distinguished from wraps or wrappers (the lightweight covers used on modern paperbacks), but may vary widely in thickness, stiffness and weight. Flexible boards are covers that fall somewhere in between boards and wrappers.
SYNONYMS: covers, cover boards, and book boards.
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