The most significant visual change in Arabic books at the time was the cover image. During the 1960s, book covers became predominantly pictorial, gradually moving away from standardised calligraphic or typeset titles, thus enlisting the visual skills of artists, illustrators and graphic designers. Some commissions were sparked by networks of friendship and politics between publishers, authors and artists. Others involved professionals, who were the pioneers of an emerging book cover design and illustration practice, such as Abdulkader Arnaout, Hussein Bicar, Helmi el-Touni, and Ismail Shammout.

The growing volume of production prompted large-scale publishers, such as Dar al-Hilal in Cairo and the Arab Institute for Research and Publishing in Beirut, to employ in-house graphic designers. Attractive modern covers and carefully designed graphic systems distinguishing between book series, genres and authors: all provide a systematic and recognisable house style image for publishers to brand their books on the Arabic reading market.

The changing visual economy of Arabic books was not limited to the cover image. Books are three-dimensional objects that have an intimate relation of scale to the human body, varying in size, weight, paper and binding to accommodate reading contexts and forge new book markets: from standard-sized low-cost paperbacks and children’s picture-books that fit the palm of a child’s hand, to lavishly printed large-sized poetry anthologies and limited-edition artists’ books.