The term "folio" has several interconnected meanings primarily related to books, printing, and paper:
- A folio is a book or pamphlet made of large sheets of paper, each sheet folded once to produce two leaves (four pages). This is a traditional printing format where each sheet of paper is printed with four pages of text, two on each side, and then folded once to form the leaves of the book. Folios were common in early printing, such as the Gutenberg Bible and Shakespeare's First Folio.
- Folio also refers generally to a single sheet, leaf, or page in manuscripts and older books. Each folio has two sides: the recto (right-hand page) and the verso (left-hand page). The term is used in manuscript studies for referencing and numbering pages.
- Folio is used as an approximate size category for books, usually around 15 inches tall, but this varies depending on the size of the original full sheet of paper used in printing.
- In typography, a folio can mean a page number placed at the top or bottom of a page.
- In a broader contemporary artistic context, a folio can mean a collection of loose unbound prints or images organized like a book but without binding.
Additionally, "FOLIO" is also the name of an open-source library services platform collaboration. In summary, "folio" originated as a term for a large sheet of paper folded once to create a book or document format. It broadly refers to leaves or pages and a book size category. If you want a specific meaning related to books, manuscripts, printing, or another context, please let me know! This explanation covers the main definitions and uses of "folio."
