News + Trends
The world's most successful historical novel comes as a graphic novel series
by Oliver Fischer
Book trend: Art on the cut edges now also for non-fiction books
22.7.2025
Translation: machine translated
Textbooks and the art trend: how do they go together? The Thieme publishing house makes it easy by giving a 3500-page standard work a colour section.
If you've been in a bookshop recently, you've probably noticed: Many novels present themselves with colourful artwork on the sides of the book block. Now this trend is also making its way into specialised books. Thieme-Verlag, a publishing house specialising in health topics, has published a standard work with a so-called colour section.
The three-part series «I care» is the standard work for trainees in nursing professions in Germany. The books cover the areas of nursing, anatomy and physiology as well as medical science and are designed to prepare trainees for their exams. The third edition of the work was published in July with 20,000 copies - now with a colour section for the first time.
Source: Thieme
The motif - anatomical illustrations of the stomach, the heart and the eyeball as well as various drawings - can only be fully recognised when all three books are placed on top of each other in the correct order.
According to press release, the publisher came up with the idea at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2023. An entire hall was reserved for young adult books, the genre where the current colour-coded trend began. Publishing novices, usually young adults themselves, wanted to know why their own publishing house didn't have colour trim. And because they were currently working on the new edition of the nursing standard work, the publisher took the opportunity.
«Learning should be fun», according to the press release. Initially, however, there was scepticism: does fun go with a textbook? In the end, those responsible were convinced. The colour section picks up the nursing trainees and shows them that «learning and fun are not a contradiction».
Header image: Thieme Group
Feels just as comfortable in front of a gaming PC as she does in a hammock in the garden. Likes the Roman Empire, container ships and science fiction books. Focuses mostly on unearthing news stories about IT and smart products.
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