Jacob Dybwad received his examen artium from Møllers Institute in 1844.

[3] His older brother, Christopher Andreas Dybwad (1810–1892) had opened a publishing shop in Christiania (now Oslo) which was acquired by Guldberg & Dzwonkowski in 1848.

Dybwad was the publisher of the Norwegian almanac from 1877, and of Nordahl Rolfsen's readers for primary school in the 1890s.

He played a central role when the Norwegian Bookstores Association was founded in 1851.

Jacob Dybwad died in 1899 and was buried at Vår Frelsers gravlund in Oslo.