Large-print

Large-print (also large-type or large-font) describes a type of book or other (paper, online or otherwise) published material in which the typeface (or font), and sometimes the medium, are considerably larger than usual, to accommodate people who have poor vision. Often public special-needs libraries will stock large-print versions of books, along with versions written in Braille.

Among librarians Large Print is defined as print that is at least 16 points in size.

Large Print book publishing in English began in 1964 in Leicester, England when Frederick Thorpe, a retired book and magazine distributor, decided to meet the needs of elderly poor-sighted readers by reprinting older classic books in editions about twice the physical size of the original book. The type inside was enlarged to about twice the size of the original printing. The books were given plain dustjackets with type only, color-coded to indicate categories like mysteries (black), general fiction (red), romances (blue), westerns (orange) and so forth. These editions met the need but were difficult for frail elderly readers to handle because of they were oversize.

In 1969 Thorpe's company, Ulverscroft, began to retypeset the books in 16 point type and print them in normal-sized bindings, again with color-coded plain jackets. This change greatly increased the acceptance of Large Print in public libraries. Thorpe himself became a Large Print ambassador, travelling around the English-speaking world promoting the acquisition of Large Print books for seniors.

Today Large Print editions of some current books are published simultaneously with regular print editions by their publishers and usually feature the same full-color jackets and jacket designs. Many, if not most public libraries in the English-speaking world have Large Print sections and most bookstores do carry some Large Print editions.