Speaking at the press conference, weeping cartoonist Renald 'Luz' Luzier said the image of Mohammed chosen for the latest front cover of the magazine represented "just a little guy who's crying."
"The only idea left was to draw Mohammed, I am Charlie. Then I looked at him, he was crying. Then above, I wrote: "All is forgiven", and then cried. We had the front page, we had finally found this bloody front page. This was our front page," he said.
With demand surging for the edition due on Wednesday, the weekly planned to print up to 3 million copies, dwarfing its usual run of 60,000, after newsagents reported a rush of orders.
International editions will be translated into 16 languages.
Editor in Chief Gerard Biard thanked the public for their support.
"I would obviously also like to thank all the institutions, anonymous individuals and well-known personalities who have thanked us, who are Charlie. I hope they will continue to be for a long time, especially the institutions. Because it is important, it is also the institutions which have been attacked. The freedom of the press in a democracy is an institution."
The satirical paper's previous editor, Stephane 'Charb' Charbonnier, was one of 17 people killed in three days of violence that began when two Islamist gunmen burst into Charlie Hebdo's offices, opening fire in revenge for the paper's publication of satirical images of Mohammad in the past.
The attacks sparked outpourings of grief across the globe, with many taking up the slogan "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie) in an intended message of solidarity.
On Sunday world leaders including Muslim and Jewish statesmen linked arms to lead more than a million French citizens through Paris in an unprecedented march to pay tribute to the victims.
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