Tankōbon

Tankōbon (単行本) is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series, though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series. It may be used for a novel, an economics textbook, a book of beauty tips, a book presenting a coherent set of photographs, an exhibition catalogue that samples earlier books, and so forth. It is a more specific term than plain hon, which encompasses such books but also one or more issues of a periodical, one or more volumes (or the whole set) of an encyclopedia, etc.

Tankōbon do not include bunkobon (文庫本, typically used for novels), shinsho (新書, typically used for intellectually informative books), or rather larger-format mukku (ムック, with plenty of photographs), as each is within a series.

Tankōbon may be of any dimensions, from a miniature-sized novelty book (i.e. mamehon, 豆本) to a sumptuous folio-sized one. Nonetheless, oddly-sized tankōbon tend to be given a taxonomical name. Using English bookbinding terms, a tankōbon of prototypical size would be called quarto or octavo.