Half title

Half title of Picturesque New Guinea (1887), with ornamentation above and below the title

The half title, or bastard title, is a page carrying nothing but the title of a book—as opposed to the title page, which also lists subtitle, author, publisher and similar data.

The half title can have some ornamentation of the book's title, or it can be plain text.

Theodore Low De Vinne distinguishes between half title and bastard title in his series The Practice of Typography, saying:

The half-title should not be confounded with the bastard title. The half-title follows the title and begins the first page of text; the bastard title, usually a single line in capital letters, precedes the full title, and takes a separate leaf with blank verso.^[1]

References

↑ De Vinne, Theodore Low (1904). Modern Methods of Book Composition. The Practice of Typography. The Century Co. p. 130, note 1.

The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. (University of Chicago Press, 2003)

Book design

General page layout and typography choices	Fonts

Front and back covers	Buckram Leather Treasure binding

Endpapers	Marbled

Front matter	Half title or bastard title Frontispiece Title page Edition notice Dedication Table of contents List of figures List of tables Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Prologue Printer's mark

Body matter, which may include:	Chapters Parts Tipped-in pages

Back matter	Afterword Conclusion Epilogue Outro Postscript Appendix/Addendum Glossary Bibliography Index Errata Colophon

Other elements	Catchword Die cutting Fore-edge painting Pop-ups Thumb index

Half title

See also

References