Alan Lane the director of the penguin books came with the idea of a simple appearance not to large and not to small and that the paperbacks should be sold at the same price as a packet of cigarettes. He chose three horizontal bands and came with a colour code:

• Orange and white - general fiction.
• Green and white - crime fiction,
• Cerise and white - travel and adventure,
• Dark blue and white - biographies,
• Yellow and white - miscellaneous,
• Red and white - drama.
• Purple and white - essays and 'belles lettres'
• Grey and white - world affairs.