Bookmark

A bookmark ( in Switzerland book characters) serves as a marker in a book in order to find the point at which the reader has paused faster. Bookmarks are mostly flat objects attached often made ​​of paper or book on fabric ribbons ( ribbon bookmark ). There are also artful bookmarks from various other materials such as metal, wood or textile materials that serve the same purpose. Some readers use is buckled side corners, so-called donkey's ears, as the label.

History and Development

Bookmarks are known since the early 14th century. Bookmark monks used to retrieve text passages. One of the earliest forms include reading wheel, bookmark and plug bookmark. These were custom built exclusively for this purpose in monastic as well as in secular bookbinding workshops. With the end of the 19th century the bookmark was discovered as a cheaper advertising for various industries such as advertising and brochures or Sammelbildchen mass-produced. Has been particularly favored mass production of bookmarks by the onset of industrialization and their technical possibilities.

Use

A bookmark is primarily used as an insert marker to find the page in a book or magazine faster, to which one has paused to read. A special form are time list or media in libraries. These are intended to fulfill the purpose of the information ( for return of the medium). Of course, but they are also used as a bookmark. Bookmarks are also a popular craft object due to the simple nature - especially for children.

Molding

• The insert bookmark form the largest group of bookmark types. They are between the pages loaded so that they protrude above from the book. The most common system material is paper or cardboard. Is on the bookmark additionally attached a tassel or ribbon, side marker carried by the bottom out tassels or ribbons. The rigidly connected to the upper spine ( ribbon bookmark ), hanging out of the bottom book section, belong to the group of the insert bookmark.
• From the reading wheel today only a few remain. They are individually made and very individual in their design and technology. The special feature of the read wheel is that using a wheel described not only the page but also the text column could be noted. The few surviving reading wheel are now in the museum or library property.
• The plug-in bookmark (also called " page tab ") are placed on the sheet to be marked page and have already been used in the late Middle Ages purely purposive. At the time of paper or parchment plug bookmarks are made from a variety of other materials, mainly from metals such as brass or silver since the middle of the 19th century, and it was placed increasingly in the production value on decorative purposes.
• The leaf sage are typically used when multiple pages of a book should be noted systematic and permanent, such as in chapter subdivisions. In the corresponding book pages glued, they project a short distance beyond the front section of the book. They may consist inter alia of paper, cardboard, leather or parchment and labeled. Modified, they are also found in the form of separators as order and registration help with file folders.
• The triangle bookmarks are known since about the beginning of the 20th century. They are similar to the plug slipped bookmark on the upper corner of einzumerkenden book page. They are mostly made ​​of metal or cardboard.
• The brackets have bookmark prevailed only in recent years. In the form of a walking stick, they are inserted between the pages einzumerkenden that the bracket on the upper part of the bookmark over the head section or the spine depends.
• Buchreiter ( Aufstecklesezeichen, engl. Page Holder ) braces are made ​​of metal, which were suitable only for solid parchments. They could act as Row-wise similar to plug bookmark on the head section as a page and column wise and in the front section. The two jaws are fixed to a ring.

Materials

Just as the shape also varies the material. Paper or cardboard is still the most commonly used material for bookmarks. Using various printing techniques, such as the woodcut or etching on paper is used as a material for bookmarks since the 13th century. But it is by no means binding. In addition to paper, especially textile materials are considered the oldest materials used for bookmarks. Based on the company Stevens in Coventry in England in the mid -19th century silk bookmarks were produced with weaving first image. From 1880, "Steve Graphs " was also commonly used as a term for woven silk bookmark and has since been back to the Production of Machine weaving. From England, now on the woven silk bookmark spread out on the European continent, but were increasingly being used instead of the cheaper paper bookmark to the turn of the century. Since the late 19th century, metals are used as a material for bookmarks. They offer since a variation of diversity in the shaping, as it is difficult to achieve with other materials. Mostly silver, brass, tin and silver-plated or gold-plated metal were used. Usually, they are designed as plug bookmark, has been consisting of a "head" and a " clip " manufactured. Because of their complex design, they were initially not mass-produced as the paper bookmark and usually accompanies the reader over a longer period. Today, however, they are also made ​​on bulk due to technical possibilities. Other natural materials for the production of bookmarks were wood, horn, bone, ivory, mother of pearl and leather. These were but the more complex processing is not so common use and are now rare. As a synthetic or semi-synthetic material has been used since the late 19th century also plastic to produce bookmarks.

Design and Technology

The design are virtually unlimited. The shortage economy during the world wars here, also reflected more generally, artistically aesthetic ideas of each emergence time. However, certain features such as company logos, contact information and pictures of the products advertised return again and again. The common until the mid- 20th century method of printing for paper bookmark has now been largely replaced by offset printing.

Promotional bookmark

End of the 19th century recognized trade and industry in addition to the purely functional use as Einmerker, the possibility of commercial exploitation of the bookmark as an advertising medium. These still form the largest sector of bookmarks and have a dual function. They serve as a marker and advertising. Among the publishers of advertising bookmark you can find almost all the industries that use the bookmark as an instrument of cost Dauerwerbung. The companies put this much emphasis on an attractive design and a high recognition value. This was achieved mainly through the development of entire bookmark series that were similar to the picture cards used to establish a strong customer loyalty to articles of a company. A particularly successful example of this method were in the 50s of last century the rororo ribbon (Pocket Books publishing house Rowohlt ) enclosed Bookmark with pictures typical local costumes and costumes. Publishers, bookstores, antique shops and mail order companies create a bookmark like books or orders in order to advertise for new releases and available titles.