An exhibition on the theme of "Beauty of Books" is held in Shanghai. [Photo/CNTV]

The Shanghai Book Fair continues, and its "Beauty of Books" exhibition showcases what Chinese designers are coming up with.

An exhibition of 40 of the best designed Chinese books from the past two years is being held at this year's fair. One designer,who has won the award eight times, says the competition has encouraged her to come up with better ideas, like this poetry collection she designed for young readers.

"This book I designed, firstly, I used a traditional Chinese binding technique. Secondly, the book can be opened this way to guide readers, and makes it easier to find the page you want to read. And I used different sized fonts -- the poems with larger characters are the easy ones for students to read, and poems with smaller characters are deeper. Because kids are always attracted by pictures first, once it brings out their interests, they would start to read the deeper poems," book designer Chen nan said.

While e-books are changing the way people read and buy, some visitors to the fair say they still enjoy a well-designed paper book.

Germany set up the World Best Book Design award in 1989. Each year, judges look through more than 700 books from around 30 countries and pick 14 award winners. To date, Chinese designers have been honored 13 times.

One of the judges said the criteria for the competition mainly focuses on the readers' experience, such as the relation between the book's content and its paper material, fonts, and of course, cover design.

The Beauty of Books in China award has been presented to 251 books over the past 12 years.