Six imprints had been added over four decades, each with its own spine treatment. On a shelf the backlist read as six publishers. Booksellers shelved them apart.

A single spine grid with the imprint set in one fixed position and the press mark at the foot. Type sizes are chosen by spine width from a table, so a typesetter never guesses.

Two hundred and twenty titles were respined across two print runs. The backlist now reads as one publisher at three metres. New titles are specified by the production editor from a one-page table.