LaTeX Beginners Guide

Creating front and back matter

In contrast to reports, books often begin with introductory material such as copyright information, a foreword, acknowledgements, or a dedication. This part, including the title page and the table of contents, is called the front matter.

At the end, a book might include an afterword and supporting material like a bibliography, and an index. This part is called the back matter.

The book class and some other classes like scrbook and memoir support this kind of sectioning directly. Often, desired consequences of this sectioning are differences in the numbering of pages and chapters. Let's see how it works.