Colophon (publishing)

In publishing, a colophon (/ˈkɒləfən, -fɒn/) is a brief statement containing information about the publication of a book such as an "imprint" (the place of publication, the publisher, and the date of publication).

A colophon may include the device (logo) of a printer or publisher. Colophons are traditionally printed at the ends of books (see History below for the origin of the word), but sometimes the same information appears elsewhere (when it may still be referred to as colophon) and many modern (post-1800) books bear this information on the title page or on the verso of the title leaf, which is sometimes called a biblio page or (when bearing copyright data) the copyright page.

The term colophon derives from the Late Latin colophōn, from the Greek κολοφών (meaning "summit" or "finishing touch").

The term colophon was used in 1729 as the bibliographic explication at the end of the book by the English printer Samuel Palmer in his The General History of Printing, from Its first Invention in the City of Mentz to Its first Progress and Propagation thro' the most celebrated Cities in Europe. Thereafter, colophon has been the common designation for the final page that gives details of the physical creation of the book.

The existence of colophons can be traced back to antiquity. Zetzel, for example, describes an inscription from the 2nd century A.D., preserved in humanistic manuscripts. He cites the colophon from Poggio's manuscript, a humanist from the 15th century:

Statili(us) / maximus rursum em(en)daui ad tyrone(m) et laecanianu(m) et dom̅ & alios ueteres. III.
(‘I, Statilius Maximus, have for the second time revised the text according to Tiro, Laecanianus, Domitius and three others.’)

A common colophon at the end of hand copied manuscripts was simply "Finished, thank God."

Colophons can be categorized into four groups.