Louis Felipe Vicente Jou I Senabre was born in Spain, in the village of Gracia (now part of Barcelona). At about age ten, his parents apprenticed him to a printer in Barcelona, where his evident talent was recognized by Euald Canibel, the resident creative director of the firm and a curator of Barcelona'sArus Library. Canibel took the young boy under his wing and exposed him to the library's collection of manuscripts, early books, fine bindings, and typography.

At age sixeen, Jou joined a group of young intellectuals and artists, and ultimately moved to Paris in 1906, where he became a typographer, engraver, and book illustrator, and by 1921 had established his own shop on rue du Vieux-Colombier, in the 6th Arrondisement of Paris, which he abandoned in 1940 in the face of the German occupation and re-established his shop in Vieux-Colombier, where he had owned a house since 1921. Fully re-established there by 1944, Jou continued his work until 1967, and died there in 1968.