Front matter, in order

The pages before chapter one are the part of a book most authors think about last, and they are the part a reader uses to decide, in about four seconds, whether this is a real book.

They have an order. It is not arbitrary, most of it is centuries old, and almost none of it is explained anywhere an author would look.

The order

The Chicago Manual of Style sets it out at 1.4. Not every book has every page, but a book that has two of them should carry them in this relative order:

Page	Side	Usually numbered?
Half title	recto (right)	i, invisible
Frontispiece or blank	verso (left)	ii
Title page	recto	iii, invisible
Copyright	verso	iv, invisible
Dedication	recto	v, invisible
Epigraph	recto	invisible
Table of contents	recto	visible from here
List of illustrations	recto	visible
Foreword	recto	visible
Preface	recto	visible
Acknowledgements	recto	visible
Introduction	recto	visible

Two conventions are doing most of the work in that table, and they are worth taking separately.

Roman numerals, and why

Front matter is numbered i, ii, iii, so that the body can begin at page 1.

The practical reason is that front matter arrives late. A foreword gets commissioned after the book is set; an acknowledgements page grows every time someone else helps. If the front matter shared a sequence with the body, adding two pages to a preface would renumber all 340 pages after it, along with every cross-reference and the index.

Keeping the two sequences separate means the front can grow or shrink and chapter one is still on page 1.

The numbers are counted from the half title but not printed until the contents page. A folio on a title page or a dedication looks like a mistake, because no published book carries one.

Recto and verso

Recto is the right-hand page. Verso is the left. In a bound book, recto pages always carry odd numbers, and this never varies.

Certain pages open recto by convention: the half title, the title page, the dedication, the contents, and the first page of the introduction. When a recto page is required and the previous page ended on a recto, a blank verso is inserted to push it across. Those blanks are deliberate. A reader interprets them as air, not as an error.

The copyright page is the standard exception, and the reason is physical rather than aesthetic: it sits on the back of the title page. Same sheet of paper, other side.

What each page actually contains

Half title

The title alone. No subtitle, no author, no publisher.

It originated as protection — the first leaf took the wear during binding and transport — and survived as a convention after the practical need disappeared. Readers now expect it, which is reason enough.

Title page

Title, subtitle, author, and the publisher’s imprint at the foot. If the book is part of a series, the series name goes here. If there is a translator, illustrator or editor, they belong here too.

This is the page a reader looks at longest before deciding what kind of book they are holding. It is worth more attention than any other page in the front matter.

Copyright page

The one page with legal content, and the one most self-published books get thin. It carries:

• the copyright notice: © year, rights holder
• the ISBN, one per format — the paperback and the ebook are different ISBNs
• the edition and printing history
• a rights reservation statement
• for fiction, a disclaimer that the characters are fictional
• credits: cover designer, illustrator, translator, typeface

It sets in small type, usually 8 or 9 point, and it is the one page in the book where a wall of small text is correct.

Dedication

One line, set alone on a right-hand page, usually a little above the optical centre rather than exactly at the middle.

No heading. A page that says Dedication above the dedication is the single clearest tell of a book laid out in a word processor.

Epigraph

A quotation, with its attribution. If the book has one epigraph for the whole work it goes here; if each chapter has its own, they belong at the chapter openings instead.

Attribution sets smaller than the quotation, ranged right or indented, and takes no quotation marks around the source’s name.

Table of contents

Headed Contents, not Table of Contents, in most house styles.

It lists parts and chapters. It does not list the half title, the copyright page or the dedication, because a reader does not navigate to those. It does list the back matter.

In print, it carries page numbers. In an EPUB, it is a different object entirely: the reading system builds its own navigation from a structural document, and the contents page you typeset is a page in addition to that, not a substitute for it.

Foreword, preface, introduction

Three words for three different things, and they are constantly used interchangeably.

A foreword is written by someone other than the author, and is signed. A preface is by the author, about how the book came to be written. An introduction is by the author, about the subject.

The distinction that matters typographically is the last one: an introduction that discusses the work is front matter and takes roman numerals, while an introduction that is really the book’s first argument is chapter one, whatever its title says, and belongs in the body.

Back matter, briefly

The same logic runs in reverse at the end: appendix, notes, bibliography, index, acknowledgements if they are not at the front, about the author.

Acknowledgements are the one genuinely optional placement. Chicago puts them in the front after the preface; trade publishing increasingly puts them at the back, where they do not stand between the reader and chapter one. Both are defensible. Having them in both places is not.

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None of this is difficult, and all of it is invisible when it is right. What a reader notices is the absence: a dedication with a heading over it, a chapter one that starts on page 9, a contents page listing the copyright notice.

In Nueel the front matter pages carry semantic roles rather than being ordinary sections that happen to come first, so the numbering sequence, the recto rule and the absence of a drop cap on a copyright page follow from what the page is. Inserting a copyright page into a book that already has a title page puts it after, not before.

Common questions

What order does front matter go in?

The conventional order, which the Chicago Manual of Style sets out at 1.4, is: half title, title page, copyright, dedication, epigraph, table of contents, list of illustrations, foreword, preface, acknowledgements, introduction. Not every book has every one, but a book that includes two of them should carry them in that relative order.

What is a half title page?

The first page of the book, carrying only the title, with no subtitle, no author and no publisher. It exists because a book's first printed page was historically vulnerable in transit and binding, and it survives as a convention readers expect. It is page i, and it always falls on a right-hand page.

Why is front matter numbered with roman numerals?

So the body can begin at page 1. It lets front matter be added or removed late without renumbering the whole book, which matters because a foreword often arrives after everything else is set. The half title is page i, and the numbers usually stay invisible until the contents page.

Which pages go on the right-hand side?

The half title, the title page, the dedication, the table of contents and the first page of the introduction all open recto, meaning the right-hand page. The copyright page is the standard exception: it sits on the back of the title page, which is verso, the left-hand side.

Does a dedication need a heading?

No, and it should not have one. A dedication is a short line set alone on an otherwise empty right-hand page, usually a little above the centre. Giving it a heading that reads Dedication is a mark of a book set in a word processor.

Should acknowledgements go at the front or the back?

Either is correct. Chicago places them in the front matter after the preface, but modern trade publishing increasingly puts them at the back, where they do not delay the reader's arrival at chapter one. Pick one and be consistent; do not have both.

Is an introduction front matter or chapter one?

It depends on what it does. An introduction that discusses the work, its sources or its history is front matter and takes roman numerals. An introduction that is genuinely the book's opening argument is chapter one, whatever it is called, and belongs in the body with arabic numbers.