Book design is the art of harmonising content, style, format, design, and the sequence of a book's various components into a cohesive whole. As Jan Tschichold articulated, "methods and rules upon which it is impossible to improve, have been developed over centuries. To produce perfect books, these rules have to be brought back to life and applied."
The front matter, or preliminaries, constitutes the initial section of a book, typically the smallest in page count. Each page is accounted for, yet no folio or page number is displayed or printed on either display pages or blank pages.