French flaps, sometimes called a gatefold cover style, are folded flyleaves in the interior of a paperback cover, used to give an extra decorative elegance to a paperback publication. They can serve exactly the same function as a hardback dust jacket, allowing more space for presentation and marketing, with a book synopsis or extra artwork. But you can choose to leave them blank, or just contain your logo. They can also have a functional value, allowing the reader to use the front flap as a bookmark. You can choose to have both front and back gatefold flaps, or just one.

The flaps can be customised to the size you want, whether almost as wide as the entire cover with full-colour artwork, or just a small fold to give a bookmark with room for a little text or a logo – the choice is yours. Covers with French flaps are produced differently from ordinary paperbacks, where the trimming is the final step after binding, as with the gatefold style the cover is trimmed before the book is bound. These custom covers need to be made by experts.

Customised gatefolds that give your book extra elegance need a proven professional top-qualityprinter like Pulsio. Contact our consultants for more information.