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Page numbering
Page numbering
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The bottom left corner of a page in a large book; the number "978" appears.
Page number in a book

Page numbering is the process of applying a sequence of numbers (or letters, or Roman numerals) to the pages of a book or other document. The number itself, which may appear in various places on the page, can be referred to as a page number or as a folio.[1] Like other numbering schemes such as chapter numbering, page numbers allow the citation of a particular page of the numbered document and facilitates to the reader to find specific parts of the document and to know the size of the complete text (by checking the number of the last page).

Numbering conventions

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Even numbers usually appear on verso (left-hand) pages, while odd numbers appear on recto (right-hand) pages. In the printing industry, in cases where odd numbers appear on verso pages and even numbers on recto pages, this is referred to as non-traditional folios (in the past, it had been referred to as Chinese folios, however this term has fallen out of favor in recent years).[citation needed]

In books, some pages, known as blind folios,[1] of the front matter and back matter are numbered but the numbers are not printed. Publishers are not consistent about how they number the pages of their books. Some publishers stick with the default numbering of the tool they are using, which is typically to number the first page of the front matter as 1 and all pages after that in a consecutive order. When publishers wish to distinguish between the front matter and the body, the initial title pages are blind folios, the front matter is numbered using lower-case Roman numerals (i, ii, iii...) and the first page of the body or main content begins with 1. The title page of the body, if present, is a blind folio; similarly, any section title pages (e.g., when the body is broken into multiple parts), are blind folios. The first page of chapter one would then be numbered as page 3.

The sixteenth edition of the Chicago Manual of Style[1] calls for the beginning of the text to begin with the Arabic number 1, while the front matter that precedes it is to be numbered with lower-case Roman numerals. If the front matter is extensive and a second half-title page is included, it is to be numbered as page 1 and its verso as page 2. If a part title is included, it is to be included in the same numbering as the text. Page numbers do not appear on part titles.

Most citation systems call for the identification of the page number from which a quote or point is drawn. For example, such usage is specified in their citation formats of both the Chicago Manual of Style,[2] and The Bluebook.[3]

Some printed versions of the Christian Bible, such as the New Revised Standard Version and the Jerusalem Bible, recommence page numbering with page 1 at the start of the New Testament section, which follows directly after the Old Testament.

Numbering by chapter

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Guidelines for technical manuals, especially loose bound manuals expected to be updated, often recommend numbering pages by chapter. When numbering by chapter, page "3-2" is the second page of chapter 3, page "A-3" is the third page of Appendix A.[4][5][6][7][8]

Larger newspapers have page "numbers" that begin with a letter -- page "B3" is the third page of the second section. [9]

Unique numbering schemes

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In the book Humble Pi by mathematics communicator and YouTuber Matt Parker, the book uses a page numbering scheme where the pages count backwards from 314 to 0, referencing the approximation of 3.14 for the mathematical constant pi (π).[10]

Electronic documents

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E-books and other electronic documents published in a non-reflowable format such as PDF are normally paginated and numbered in the same way as their printed counterparts.

While reading devices for reflowable documents such as EPUB e-books may display page numbers, these numbers change from device to device depending on factors such as the size of the display and the selected font size. This makes them unsuitable for citation purposes. To remedy this problem, Amazon Kindle e-books contain what are called "location numbers", that is, numbers in the margin of the electronic text that indicate where the corresponding page begins in the printed version of the book.[11]

Manuscripts

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In codicology, each physical sheet (folium, abbreviated fol. or f.) of a manuscript is numbered and the sides are referred to as folium rectum and folium versum, abbreviated as r and v respectively. This results in designations like 5r (the front side of the fifth sheet) and 8v (the back side of the eighth sheet).

See also

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References

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from Grokipedia
Page numbering is the practice of assigning sequential identifiers, usually numerals, to the individual pages of a , , or other to enable easy , precise referencing, and organized . The origins of page numbering trace back to the late 15th century, coinciding with the rise of the in . Prior to this period, most handwritten lacked any form of , as were rare and expensive to produce, with copying limited to about three or four pages per day on costly ; reading practices emphasized intensive, memorization-based study rather than quick location of specific content. By around 1450, fewer than ten percent of manuscript included . The earliest known example of sequential numbering appeared in 1470 in a printed , Sermo in festo praesentationis beatissimae Mariae virginis, produced by Arnold ter Hoernen in , where leaves were numbered on their recto (front) sides—a system known as . Full , numbering both recto and verso sides of leaves, was first implemented in 1499 by the Venetian printer in his edition of Cornucopiae by Niccolò Perotti, a 700-page work that marked a significant advancement in . By approximately 1520, page numbering had become a standard feature in printed , serving as essential metadata to break long texts into referable units and support scholarly citation. In contemporary book publishing, established conventions govern page numbering to ensure consistency and readability. Front matter—such as , dedications, and tables of contents—typically uses lowercase (i, ii, iii), starting from the half-title page, though these pages may sometimes be left unnumbered if the section is brief. The main body begins with on page 1, which must appear on a right-hand (recto) page; subsequent odd-numbered pages remain on the recto, while even-numbered pages occupy the verso (left-hand side). New chapters or major sections also start on right-hand pages to maintain this alternating pattern. Page numbers are generally positioned in running headers or footers, centered at the bottom or aligned to the outer margins, and omitted from display pages like chapter openings or the title page itself. These rules, rooted in centuries-old traditions, facilitate intuitive flipping through physical volumes and align with binding processes. In digital documents, page numbering adapts these principles while accommodating flexible formats. Portable Document Format (PDF) files, for instance, support logical page labeling through the /PageLabels entry in the document catalog, allowing for front matter and for the body, even if the physical file structure differs. This ensures consistent navigation across devices, similar to print, though electronic texts may also use alternative locators like character counts or hyperlinks for enhanced referencing in non-paginated environments.

Basics and History

Definition and Purpose

Page numbering, also known as , refers to the sequential assignment of numbers to the pages of bound or unbound documents to facilitate , citation, and . This practice applies to of each , distinguishing the recto as or right-hand side and the verso as the back or left-hand side. A denotes a single leaf comprising these two pages, with the number typically placed in the header or footer for easy visibility. The fundamental purposes of page numbering include enabling precise referencing within texts, such as instructing readers to consult "page 42" for specific content, and ensuring the logical order of multi-page works to prevent disorientation. It also supports printing and binding by allowing workers to verify and arrange sheets correctly after , maintaining sequence during assembly. In open books, recto pages are conventionally odd-numbered and positioned on the right, while verso pages are even-numbered and on the left, aligning with the natural flow of reading. This system traces its roots to the transition from continuous scrolls—where sequence typically relied on column counts, though rare fixed numbering appeared in some cases—to the codex format, in which leaf numbering helped preserve order amid potential fragmentation.

Historical Development

The earliest known instances of systematic numbering in written documents appear in ancient Egyptian papyri, primarily for administrative and medical purposes. Around 1550 BCE, during the 17th Dynasty, the Ebers Medical Papyrus employed pagination from 1 to 110 (skipping 28 and 29) to organize its content on a long scroll, facilitating reference and navigation in what was otherwise a continuous text divided into columns. Such practices were rare but essential for practical scrolls used in record-keeping, predating the codex form by over a millennium. By the 2nd century CE, the transition from scrolls to codices in the introduced , the numbering of individual leaves (folios) rather than columns, which improved accessibility in bound volumes made from or sheets. This innovation, prototyped in Roman notebooks derived from wax tablets, marked a shift toward treating texts as discrete pages, though widespread remained inconsistent until later centuries. In the Islamic world during the 10th century, scholar advanced bibliographic organization through his (completed around 988 CE), a comprehensive catalog dividing knowledge into 10 numbered sections with subsections, effectively standardizing the enumeration of books and topics for scholarly reference without explicit page-level in individual works. In medieval Europe, following the 12th-century translations of mathematical texts, Hindu-Arabic numerals began appearing in manuscripts around the late , initially for calculations in monastic and commercial settings with sporadic use extending to in some contexts by the , though it became more common in the . The invention of the accelerated these developments; Johannes Gutenberg's (1455) featured consistent quire-based structure but lacked printed page numbers, relying instead on verse indicators, with sometimes added by hand in surviving copies. in printed books emerged shortly after, with Arnold ter Hoernen's 1470 edition of a as one of the first printed examples of , numbering the recto sides of leaves. In the , Venetian printer played a pivotal role in standardizing pagination across Europe, introducing sequential ("arithmeticis numeris") on every page in his 1499 edition of Niccolò Perotti's Cornucopiae, a 700-page Latin that catered to a growing readership demanding easier . This practice spread rapidly in editions of classical texts, promoting portability and utility. By the 17th century, the inclusion of title pages—first appearing in printed form in 1476—evolved to encompass front matter with separate Roman numeral pagination, distinguishing preliminary sections like dedications and contents from the main Arabic-numbered body, a convention that enhanced structural clarity in scholarly and literary works. The shift from Roman to Arabic numerals for main body pagination, driven by their practicality for arithmetic and indexing, gained momentum in the 16th century but solidified in the 18th and 19th centuries as printing standardized across and America, with Roman numerals retained primarily for front matter to maintain tradition. In East Asian traditions, Chinese books historically favored (fascicle or volume) and leaf numbering in block-printed formats from the (7th–10th centuries), often marking folded sheets or columns rather than individual pages, a system persisting until Western influences introduced modern in the early 20th century. Similarly, traditional Japanese wahon bindings, such as fukuro toji (pouch-sewn), employed leaf or section numbering aligned with vertical columns and folded formats, diverging from Western page concepts until Meiji-era (late 19th century) reforms adopted Arabic-style .

Conventions in Print Media

Standard Numbering Practices

In modern printed books, page numbers are conventionally placed to align with the physical structure of the open volume, with even numbers appearing on the verso (the left-hand page) and odd numbers on the recto (the right-hand page). This arrangement ensures logical progression when reading across a spread. Common positions for these folios include the bottom center of the page for a balanced, traditional appearance, or the top outer corners (top left on verso pages and top right on recto pages) to facilitate easy without fully opening the book. The sequencing of page numbers typically employs continuous Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.) for the main body of the text, beginning with page 1 on the first recto page of the primary content. Front and back matter often feature blind folios—counted pages without printed numbers—to maintain the overall sequence without visual clutter on elements like title pages or dedications. According to the Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition, 2017), front matter should be paginated using lowercase Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, etc.), transitioning to Arabic numerals for the text and back matter to distinguish preliminary sections. For academic works, variations exist: the American Psychological Association (APA) style guide recommends continuous Arabic numbering starting from the title page throughout the document, without Roman numerals for front matter. The Modern Language Association (MLA) handbook permits flexibility but often aligns with publishing norms using Roman numerals for front matter in books, though Arabic may be used consistently in shorter manuscripts. During the printing process, imposition software arranges pages onto larger sheets in signatures—groups of nested folios—to ensure the correct sequence after folding and binding, preventing misordered pages in the final bound volume. This practice, rooted in the historical shift to Arabic numerals for clarity in sequential reading, supports efficient production while adhering to established conventions.

Numbering in Front and Back Matter

In printed books, the front matter—comprising elements such as the , dedication, , and —is typically numbered using lowercase (i, ii, iii, etc.), beginning after an often unnumbered half-title or full title page. This convention allows preliminary pages to be distinguished from the main body, which uses starting at 1. For instance, a might span pages iii to vi, providing a structured yet separate without interfering with the primary sequence. The rationale for this separate numbering system lies in its ability to isolate metadata and introductory material from the core content, preserving the uninterrupted flow of the main text and emphasizing the book's structural hierarchy. In novels, for example, the half-title page is frequently left unnumbered, while the subsequent receives Roman numeral pagination (e.g., i–iv), ensuring readers focus on the story from page 1 onward. For the back matter, including indexes, bibliographies, glossaries, and appendices, pagination generally continues sequentially with from the main body to maintain overall document cohesion. However, variations occur; appendices in some technical books may reset to 1 for self-contained , particularly when they function as standalone supplements, while glossaries often retain continuous numbering for easy cross-referencing. In legal documents, front matter may instead employ lowercase (i, ii, iii) to denote sections like tables of contents or authorities, reflecting formal hierarchies, and certain styles omit numbering entirely in brief back matter for conciseness. Page numbers in both front and back matter typically appear in the outer margins on recto (right-hand) and verso (left-hand) pages, aligning with standard print conventions.

Specialized Numbering Schemes

Chapter and Section Numbering

Hierarchical numbering systems integrate chapter or section identifiers with page numbers to enhance organization in structured documents such as technical manuals and textbooks. A typical format employs a "Chapter-Page" notation, exemplified by "4-15" to denote the fifteenth page within chapter 4. This convention is commonly implemented in authoring tools for technical documentation, allowing for precise location of content within larger divisions. Such systems offer significant benefits for navigation and reference, enabling users to identify subsections efficiently and perform cross-references without ambiguity across the document's modular structure. Page numbering may reset at the start of each chapter—for instance, "1-1" for the opening page of chapter 1 and "2-1" for chapter 2—reinforcing the independence of chapters while maintaining overall coherence. This approach aids technical readers in quickly accessing specific topics and supports editing by clarifying structural boundaries. In practical applications, hierarchical numbering appears in newspapers through section letters combined with page numbers, such as "A-3" for the third page of section A, which helps manage multi-section layouts. Legal codes often employ hybrid schemes blending article or section numbers with page references, as seen in statutory compilations where hierarchical paragraphing organizes content into numbered units for clarity and citation. Despite these advantages, hierarchical systems can lead to confusion during binding or printing errors, where misaligned sections disrupt the expected sequence. Clear headers and footers are essential to mitigate such issues and ensure readability.

Unique and Non-Standard Methods

Unique and non-standard methods of page numbering deviate from conventional sequential numeric systems to serve artistic, thematic, or functional purposes in specialized print works. These approaches often prioritize visual or conceptual impact over navigational utility, appearing in limited-edition books, experimental publications, and creative formats where form enhances content. One notable example of backward numbering is found in Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World (2019) by , where pages count downward from 313 to 0, alluding to the π (approximately 3.14), before wrapping around to 4,294,967,294 (representing 2^{32} - 2), tying into themes of computational errors. This reverse sequence challenges readers' expectations and reinforces the book's exploration of mathematical mishaps. In poetry chapbooks, pages are frequently left unnumbered to maintain aesthetic flow and emphasize the lyrical content over structure, allowing the physical book to feel more like an organic artistic object. For instance, non-linear may omit numbers entirely, enabling readers to engage with the work in a fluid, non-sequential manner that mirrors the verse's rhythm and ambiguity. Bilingual editions sometimes employ dual numbering systems, with separate sequences or prefixed indicators for each on facing pages, facilitating parallel reading without confusion between linguistic sections. This method ensures that references in one language align precisely with their counterparts, as seen in design practices where odd pages use one prefix (e.g., "EN 1") and even pages another (e.g., "DE 1"). Modern print experiments in zines extend non-standard numbering through hybrid physical-digital integration, such as QR codes linking to virtual extensions of the publication. In Olivia Konys's QR HERE (2020s), printed zines include QR stickers that direct users to updatable PDF volumes, effectively creating an infinite or expandable page sequence beyond the physical constraints. This approach blurs the boundaries of traditional paging, allowing content to evolve post-printing while the physical artifact retains minimal or symbolic numbering. Another example appears in experimental fiction like House of Leaves (2000) by Mark Z. Danielewski, which uses negative page numbers and unconventional layouts to evoke disorientation and mimic the narrative's labyrinthine structure.

Page Numbering in Manuscripts and Codices

Foliation and Manuscript Practices

In manuscript practices, foliation refers to the numbering of individual leaves, or folia, rather than separate pages, distinguishing it from pagination in printed books. Each leaf has a front side known as the recto (abbreviated "r"), which is the right-hand page when the codex is opened and read from left to right, and a back side called the verso ("v"), the left-hand or reverse side. This system allows precise reference to content, such as "fol. 5r" for the recto of the fifth leaf. During the medieval period, foliation was not uniformly applied during creation but often added later for organization, with methods varying by region and time. Scribes typically used ink marginalia to number leaves sequentially in the upper outer corners, though consistency was rare in early codices due to the labor-intensive nature of production. To aid assembly after writing, quires—gatherings of 4 to 8 folded sheets forming 8 to 16 leaves—were marked with sequential numbers, often in Roman numerals or letters, placed on the final verso of each quire or the first recto of the next. These quire signatures, sometimes accompanied by catchwords (the first word of the following quire written at the bottom of the last page), ensured correct binding order. Historical examples illustrate the evolving and often ad hoc nature of foliation. The Book of Kells, an illuminated Insular Gospel book created around 800 CE, lacks original sequential foliation, relying instead on quire structures of varying sizes (4 to 12 leaves) for organization; modern foliation was added during 19th-century rebinding, resulting in inconsistencies where some leaves remain unnumbered or misaligned with the original sequence. In the Renaissance, humanist scholars frequently added or revised foliation to ancient and medieval codices to support scholarly analysis. Tools and materials for preparing manuscripts emphasized precision to support any numbering. Pricking involved puncturing small holes in the margins with a sharp implement like an awl or point to guide ruling lines, ensuring even text alignment across ; later innovations included wheels for efficiency. Ruling followed, using a and dry media such as a lead stylus or to score faint horizontal and vertical lines without damaging the , or occasionally for more permanent guides. Numbering itself used during active medieval production to integrate with the text, but dry methods like lead point were preferred to prevent ink corrosion or bleeding on the surface. For preservation, modern foliation is routinely added by conservators using soft pencil in the upper right corner of rectos, a non-invasive practice that avoids chemical damage from inks while enabling cataloging and research. Institutions like the apply this standardized pencil foliation to thousands of medieval codices, often noting older ink numbers separately to track historical interventions without altering the artifact.

Differences from Printed Books

In manuscripts, was often applied manually after production, leading to frequent irregularities such as gaps, skipped numbers, or errors in sequencing, as scribes or later annotators inserted numbers inconsistently across leaves. This contrasted sharply with printed books, where automated and sequential ensured consistent, error-free from the outset, facilitating uniform reproduction across multiple copies. Manuscripts were frequently produced without any numbering to maintain fluidity in composition and revision, allowing scribes to adjust content without rigid constraints, whereas printed books demanded fixed to support and precise navigation in standardized editions. The bespoke nature of manuscript creation prioritized adaptability over sequential integrity, often resulting in unpaginated or partially foliated volumes that varied even within the same scribal workshop. The binding process for manuscripts relied on loose quires—gatherings of folded sheets—that permitted reordering, insertion, or removal of leaves before final , offering significant flexibility during assembly. In contrast, printed books used signatures, pre-imposed sheets folded into fixed sequences, which enforced an immutable order to prevent misbinding in large-scale production. Early printed books, or incunabula, of the often retained manuscript-like foliation notations, with numbers typically marking only the recto side of leaves, reflecting a transitional phase from handwritten traditions. By the , pagination evolved to number both recto and verso sides systematically, becoming standard by mid-century and supplanting for greater precision in referencing. In modern , digital facsimiles of manuscripts commonly overlay contemporary numbers on scanned images to enable accurate scholarly reference, bridging the gaps in original irregular systems while preserving the artifact's visual integrity. This practice facilitates cross-referencing with historical techniques without altering the underlying digital reproduction.

Electronic and Digital Documents

Numbering in Fixed-Layout Formats

In fixed-layout digital formats, page numbering is designed to replicate the static, non-reflowable structure of printed documents, ensuring that content remains positioned consistently regardless of viewing device or software. These formats, including PDFs and fixed-layout EPUBs, typically employ continuous physical numbering starting from page 1 (or index 0 internally), while allowing logical labels that reflect human-readable schemes such as for introductory sections or prefixed decimals for appendices. This distinction between physical and logical numbering supports precise navigation and citation, adapting print-like conventions to digital environments. In PDFs, standards utilize the /PageLabels array in the document catalog to define these logical page labels, enabling customized numbering styles across page ranges. For instance, the array can specify lowercase (/r) for front matter pages starting from a given index, transitioning to decimal (/D) numbering with optional prefixes like "Chapter " for subsequent sections. Physical pages are sequentially indexed from 0 in the page tree, but /PageLabels overrides the display to show logical equivalents, such as "i, ii, iii" for pages 1–3 followed by "1, 2, 3" thereafter. This mechanism, introduced in PDF 1.3, ensures that viewer toolbars and navigation reflect the intended structure without altering the underlying file order. Fixed-layout EPUB3 documents achieve similar print-like pagination through CSS properties that enforce fixed dimensions and positioning, treating each content document as a pre-paginated page with unalterable layout. In tools like Apple Pages for fixed-layout EPUBs distributed via , metadata such as a

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