Understanding Front Matter Behavior

What is Front Matter?

Front matter is everything that comes before your first chapter. Any section that appears before a Chapter type is automatically treated as front matter.

Front Matter Section Types

These section types are recognized as front matter:

Title PageCopyright PageDedication PageTable of ContentsPrologueForewordPrefaceIntroduction

Unknown or untitled sections before your first chapter are also treated as front matter. For full content guides on the most common front matter pages, see copyright page, dedication page, and table of contents.

Page Numbering

Front Matter

i, ii, iii, iv

Roman numerals

Main Content

1, 2, 3, 4

Starts at Chapter 1

Seeing Roman numerals?

If you’re seeing Roman numerals and don’t want them, disable this setting in the Font & Layout tab.

Headers & Footers Behavior

By default, headers and footers are hidden on the first page of all front matter sections. This follows traditional book design conventions where opening pages have a cleaner look.

For multi-page front matter sections (like a Prologue or Foreword), headers and footers appear normally on the second page onward, displaying Roman numeral page numbers.

Customizing This Behavior

You can override the default behavior for any section using the Section Options Menu to customize headers, footers, and page numbers for individual sections.

With front matter set up, export a print-ready PDF when ready.