The Folio trademark was officially registered on March 24, 1971 and created in 1972 following the break-up of the Hachette publishing house concerning Le Livre de poche1. La Condition humaine by André Malraux is the first title of this collection, followed by L'Étranger by Albert Camus. From the beginning, the collection welcomed its leading authors and classic works.

At the time of its creation, the Folio collection was distinguished by the adoption of the format 10x18 cm exactly (10,8 x 17,8), more elongated than the format traditionally used by the collections of pocket of then in France. Similarly, the collection's choice of graphic and typographic homogeneity: on an entirely white background - a nod to the NRF's Blanche collection, the flagship of its parent company, Gallimard, and a counterpoint to the colourful covers of the paperback collections of the time - the author's name and the title were displayed in the Baskerville Old Face black font, above a strong illustration. The collection's logo was written in the same black font.