Do judge a book by its cover

The four families

Genuine leathers — 17 colours

Italian hides, selected for texture and durability, and inspected so that only the best parts of a skin reach a cover. Because leather is a natural material no two books are ever quite alike: every cover carries its own subtle variation, which is the point of choosing it. It ages rather than wears.

Suedes — 8 colours

The quietest of the four. A brushed nap that takes a blind deboss beautifully and almost swallows the light, so the cover reads as texture before it reads as colour. Warm in the hand and the usual choice when the album is meant to feel understated.

Fine linens — 14 colours

A closer, finer weave than the standard range, in the more saturated part of the palette. Holds foil crisply, which makes it the common choice when names and a date are going on the front in gold or rose gold.

Standard linens — 14 colours

Classic bookbinding cloth: even weave, natural tones, extremely hard-wearing. This is where most of the neutrals live, and where matching a presentation box to the album is most straightforward — the clamshell box is made in the same linen as the cover.

Personalisation

Every cover can carry your names, a date, or nothing at all.

• Blind deboss. Pressed into the material with no colour. The most restrained option and, in suede, the most beautiful.
• Foil. Gold, silver, rose gold, copper, black or white.
• Cameo window. A window cut into the front with one photograph showing through — chosen for you as part of the free design if you want it.
• Blank. The material on its own. More people choose this than you would expect, and it never dates.

Not sure?

Tell us the mood rather than the colour — warm and quiet, dark and formal, something that matches the flowers — and we will suggest three. Most people take one of the three. If it matters enough to see and touch first, ask and we will talk about getting swatches to you.