broschurs

Broschur is a term used in German publishing to describe a book with a flexible, soft cover and a light or flexible binding. In practice, a Broschur edition is a softcover version, in contrast to a hardbound or gebundene Ausgabe. The cover is usually made of paper or cardstock, and the interior pages are printed on standard paper. The binding method can vary, with perfect binding (gluing the spine) being common for longer works, and saddle-stitch or stapled binding used for shorter pamphlets or magazines.

The Broschur format is generally cheaper to produce and lighter than a hardcover, which makes it common for mass-market titles, catalogs, academic monographs intended for broad distribution, and other publications where lower cost and ease of handling are desirable. However, softcover editions are typically less durable over time and more prone to spine wear than bound volumes with rigid covers.

In library and bookselling contexts, Broschur distinguishes softcover editions from gebundene Ausgaben (hardcovers). The term is sometimes used interchangeably with Taschenbuch in everyday language, but in publishing practice Taschenbuch often refers to a smaller or mass-market format, while Broschur emphasizes the binding type rather than size.

Historically, the rise of Broschuren accompanied the development of glue-binding techniques and the demand for cheaper, widely distributed publications. They remain a common format for a wide range of genres and markets in German-speaking regions.