crown

Crown is a standard imperial paper size measuring 15 inches by 20 inches, used primarily in British and Commonwealth printing and publishing. This is the parent size from which smaller imperial sizes are cut, and it remains the baseline reference for grading paper weight in countries that use the imperial system rather than metric A-series sizes.

The crown format sits in a specific hierarchy of imperial paper sizes. Two crowns trimmed and folded produce demy size (15 × 11.5 inches); further division creates foolscap and other smaller formats. Because crown is the parent size, paper weight in the UK and similar markets is traditionally expressed as grams per ream of 500 sheets of crown-sized paper, not per square meter. This means a 90 gsm metric European sheet will have a different imperial weight designation if expressed as crown basis weight.

Crown paper is common in book printing, especially for hardback and paperback trade editions. A typical crown-format book page, once folded and cut, becomes a convenient 7.5 × 10 inch leaf. The size allows efficient imposition of multiple pages for offset lithography, reducing waste compared to larger stock. Printers and binders still refer to crown-cut paper when quoting work, particularly for runs of novels, educational texts, and illustrated books aimed at the consumer market.

The term originates from watermark tradition and historical paper manufacture, where paper sizes carried names rather than metric dimensions. Crown, along with demy, foolscap, and post, belonged to a naming convention used by English papermakers from the 16th century onward. The crown watermark itself appeared as a crown symbol in the sheet, but the name persisted long after watermarks ceased to be the primary size identifier.

Modern digital workflows and metric conversion have reduced crown's everyday presence in North America and most of continental Europe, where A4 and letter sizes dominate. However, it remains entrenched in British printing specifications, stock lists, and industry standards. Anyone working with UK-based trade publishers, heritage printers, or imperial-standard suppliers will encounter crown dimensions on specification sheets, quotations, and finished book dimensions.