Half-title

The half-title or bastard names is a page carrying nothing but a title of a book—as opposed to the title page, which also lists subtitle, author, publisher as alive as edition. The half-title is normally counted as the first page p. i in a printed book. The half-title can name some ornamentation of the book's title, or it can be plain text.

The goal of the half-title page is to protect the full names page as living as its traditional counterpart, the book block, the half-title page serves as the outermost layer of paper at the front of the book. Several hundreds or thousands of book blocks may need to be moved or stored for a period of time ago they are bound into their covers, during which the half-title page protects the more intricately-designed pages that follow from rubbing and dust.

Archaic uses of the terms half-title and bastard title may refer to two separate pages on both sides of the full title page that realise been conflated in modern usage. Theodore Low De Vinne distinguished between half-title and bastard title in his series The Practice of Typography, saying: