Front matter: Masthead, verso and recto pages
Worachart Sirawaraporn Emeritus Professor, Mahidol University What is Front Mattter? • For printed books, front matter is the stuff at the beginning of the book, i.e. foreword, preface, table of contents, etc. The pages are numbered in lower- case Roman numerals. Each page is counted, but no folio or page number is expressed, or printed, on either display pages or blank pages. • For computer programming, front matter is the metadata at the top of a file. The term was (probably) popularized by the Jekyll static site generator. Example of front matter
• Half title: only the main title of the publication. • Title page(s): minimally the full title of the work, including the subtitle (if any), the name of the author and—if applicable—illustrator. May include: • Publisher’s name and address • Copyright information • ISBN • Edition notice • Date of publication • Number of printings • Disclaimers • Warranties • Safety notices • Dedication: written by the author and includes the names of the person/persons for whom the publication was written. • Epigraph: a quotation included by the author that is relevant but not essential to the text. • Table of Contents: typically in the middle of the front matter. It may be a very simple listing of what is in the book, or it may be very detailed and include descriptions of each chapter or section.
• Errata: a correction to the document. Errata are commonly added shortly after the first publication. The errata are sometimes found in the back of the book (called the back matter). • Foreword: a short piece of writing, written by someone other than the author. It often explains the relationship between the writer of the foreword and either the author or the story being told. • Preface: an introduction to the book that is written by the author. It usually covers how the publication came into being, where the idea for the book came from, etc. • Acknowledgements: is written by the author and acknowledges those who have helped him/her in the writing of the publication. • Introduction: lists the goals and the purpose of the book. • Prologue: the opening of a story and usually provides the background details and setting of the story; it is typically located immediately prior to the first chapter.
Front matter may also contain - a list of the figures, illustrations, or tables in the book, - a list of abbreviations, a frontispiece, - a list of contributors, and endpapers.
Author does not need to be concerned with many of these elements, as they will be written by the publisher; however, the author is generally responsible for writing the preface, acknowledgement, introduction, dedication, and prologue. Page Numbering Convention Page numbers allow the citation of a particular page of the numbered document and facilitates the readers to find specific parts of the document and to know the size of the complete text (by checking the number of the last page) - Verso: even page - Recto: odd page
Recto (from the Latin rectum) means right or correct Verso (from versus) means turned or changed The words are traditionally used to describe the front and back of a painting or drawing. The recto is the front or main image, the verso or back is a secondary image.
Book publishing convention: The first page of a book, and sometimes of each section and chapter of a book, is a recto page, and hence all recto pages will have odd numbers and all verso pages will have even numbers. • Each section of the book always starts on a right- hand page. The title page is always a right-hand page, the table of contents begins on a right-hand page, chapter 1 begins on a right-hand page, etc. • Book designers call these two pages by the Latin terms “recto” for the right-hand page and “verso” for the reverse or left-hand page. This usage may help you remember that each new section always starts on the recto or right-hand page, not on the ‘reverse’. Therefore • Page 1 and all odd-numbered pages are always right-hand pages. • Page 2 and all even-numbered pages are always left-hand pages. Page 1 is normally the first page of the first chapter. The preceding pages (the frontmatter) should use Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, etc.) although they can be left unpaged if the frontmatter is very brief. The odd-even rule applies within the frontmatter too. Page vii is an odd number (7) so it should be a right-hand page. Page xxiv is an even number (24) so it should be a left-hand page. Conclusion Advantages of verso-recto convention • Readers can cite a particular page of the numbered document correctly. • Readers can find specific parts of the document and know the size of the complete text by checking the number of the last page. • Verso-recto pages were employed in the old days to be the marking positions for editing text in the original manuscript.