Yell, the U.K.’s largest directory publisher, announced today that it will move 100 percent of its print directories onto a compact print format by the end of June this year. Yell bills the announcement as the “biggest design revamp for more than 40 years.”

Yell’s decision furthers a global trend to reduce the footprint of print directories, with the primary stated objective of increasing possession and usage, particularly in large markets. Reducing the size of the book also lowers costs and improves the environmental friendliness of the book, or at least enhances the product’s green image.

In the United States, Yellowbook (a division of Yell) has converted several of its directory titles to a compact format, with the tagline “new eco-friendly size.” While today’s announcement does not reference Yellowbook, BIA/Kelsey would expect that Yellowbook will soon follow Yell’s lead and covert most or all of its print directories to the smaller format.

Other publishers that are widely using the compact format for their main Yellow Pages directories include Eniro and PagesJaunes.