DTP: Numbering Pages, Part 11: Counting Those Pages Redux
The previous installment in this series introduced the problematic issue of counting pages in books and booklets.
As we explained previously, the printer sees the number of pages in a book or booklet as the total of the blank pages, the introductory pages, the pages at the end of the book, the text, and the double-sided pages that are glued to the front and back covers of hardbound books.
Your desktop publishing program has to number each of these sections separately.
After this complex review of the different parts of a book, we would think that we can now simply number the pages, right? Wrong. The numbering itself is complicated, and requires a set of rules for each document.
Open several books at random. In some cases the first page of chapters is not numbered. Although the pages that are glued to the cover aren't numbered - but in some cases, they may be counted in the total figure if they contain text. That means that the numbering of pages will start later in the book, but it will not start with the number one - and the tally may include those initial pages.
Portrait pages (sometimes called a frontispiece) or other large items may replace a page number. We wouldn't want to splash an XVIII across Our Founder's tie, would we? The graphic artist's taste may determine which of the other pages are numbered.
Finally, in some books Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3,...) continue where the initial Roman numerals left off. Thus, we may have introductory pages numbered through Roman numeral xxvii (that's 27, right?), followed by four blank pages, and then the numbering would continue in our familiar Arabic system, starting with Page 32. While this does make it easier for the printer to keep track of his work, the reader may feel it looks very strange indeed.
Strangely, it's the non-professional masses may be the driving force behind a change in this horrendous system. E-books (electronic books) are gaining in popularity. They are prepared by writers, not by printers or publishers. Writers know how to write, but they don't want to know all the complicated formulas and rules. They use consecutive numbers in their articles and books. Others place articles on the Web. Has anybody seen a page number here recently?
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Your exercise for this article is as follows:
What, indeed, is the numbering system that is commonly used for booklets?
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