Making front matter in LaTeX

"Front Matter" is all the stuff that comes before the text of the book proper and includes such things as:

1. Title page
2. Verso
3. Frontspiece
4. Introduction
5. Table of Contents
6. List of Illustrations
7. Dedication

and so on. Front matter generally has its own set of page numbers, usually in lower case roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc.)

RST has syntax for chapters, sections, subsections, etc. but doesn't really handle front matter. You need to do things like center text on a title page, make the font of the title larger, not print headings on title pages, etc. LaTeX can do this nicely.

Let's look at the front matter of a book I recently published:

%%% Body
\begin{document}
\frontmatter

\title{The Curtiss Aviation Book%
\label{the-curtiss-aviation-book}}
\author{}
\date{}
\maketitle

\clearpage
\thispagestyle{empty}

\begin{figure}
\noindent\makebox[\linewidth][c]{\includegraphics[width=4.5in]{images/Image1.jpg}}

\caption{CURTISS' HUDSON RIVER FLIGHT OVER THE STATUE OF LIBERTY\\
Copyright, 1910, by The Pictorial News Co.}
\end{figure}

\clearpage{\pagestyle{empty}\cleardoublepage}
\thispagestyle{empty}

{\centering
{\Huge\strut{THE CURTISS AVIATION BOOK
}}
\endgraf}
\par

\vs{2}
{\centering
{\normalsize\strut{BY
}}
\endgraf}
\par

{\centering
{\Large\strut{GLENN H. CURTISS
}}
\endgraf}
\par

{\centering
{\normalsize\strut{AND
}}
\endgraf}
\par

{\centering
{\Large\strut{AUGUSTUS POST
}}
\endgraf}
\par

\vs{2}
{\centering
{\large\strut{WITH CHAPTERS BY CAPTAIN PAUL W. BECK, U. S. A.\\
LIEUTENANT THEODORE G. ELLYSON, U. S. N.\\
AND HUGH ROBINSON

}}
\endgraf}
\par

\vs{2}
{\centering
{\normalsize\strut{\emph{With Numerous Illustrations from Photographs}
}}
\endgraf}
\par

\vspace*{\fill}
{\centering
{\normalsize\strut{NEW YORK
}}
\endgraf}
\par

{\centering
{\large\strut{FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
}}
\endgraf}
\par

{\centering
{\normalsize\strut{PUBLISHERS
}}
\endgraf}
\par

\clearpage
\thispagestyle{empty}

{\centering
{\Large{ISBN: 9798495501010}}
\endgraf}
\par

\vs{2}
{\centering
{\normalsize\strut{\emph{Copyright, 1912, by}
}}
\endgraf}
\par

{\centering
{\normalsize\strut{FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
}}
\endgraf}
\par

\vs{2}
{\centering
{\normalsize\strut{\emph{All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign}\\
\emph{languages, including the Scandinavian}
}}
\endgraf}
\par

\vs{2}
{\centering
{\normalsize\strut{October, 1912
}}
\endgraf}
\par

\clearpage
\thispagestyle{empty}

{\centering
{\large\strut{TO
}}
\endgraf}
\par

\vs{1}
{\centering
{\large\strut{MRS. MABEL G. BELL
}}
\endgraf}
\par

\vs{1}
{\centering
{\large\strut{WHO MADE POSSIBLE THE AERIAL EXPERIMENT ASSOCIATION
}}
\endgraf}
\par

\vs{1}
{\centering
{\large\strut{THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED BY
}}
\endgraf}
\par

\vs{1}
{\centering
{\large\strut{THE AUTHORS
}}
\endgraf}
\par

\clearpage{\pagestyle{empty}\cleardoublepage}

\tableofcontents %put toc in

\clearpage{\pagestyle{empty}\cleardoublepage}

\listoffigures

\mainmatter

\thispagestyle{empty}

You should be able to figure out most of what these lines do.

\frontmatter indicates where front matter starts and \mainmatter shows where it ends.

There are several defined sizes for text that is not a chapter or section heading, including normalsize, large, Large, huge, and Huge. These are based off the font size used for your body text, 12 pt in the example (see previous post where this is defined).

\clearpage skips to the top of a page before continuing. \thispagestyle{empty} says the new page should not have headers or footers.

vs[1] says to insert one blank line.

\vspace*{\fill} means you want to push the text following to the bottom of the current page. Very handy for title pages.

\tableofcontents inserts an automatically generated table of contents.

\listoffigures inserts an automatically generated list of illustrations. This only works if the illustrations have captions.

\begin{figure} inserts the illustration that comes before the title page, called a frontspiece. I'll have more to say about this in a future installment.

Until then, stay tuned.