Node:titlepage, Next:titlefont center sp, Up:Titlepage & Copyright Page
@titlepageStart the material for the title page and following copyright page
with @titlepage on a line by itself and end it with
@end titlepage on a line by itself.
The @end titlepage command starts a new page and turns on page
numbering. (See Page Headings, for details about how to
generate page headings.) All the material that you want to appear on
unnumbered pages should be put between the @titlepage and
@end titlepage commands. You can force the table of contents to
appear there with the @setcontentsaftertitlepage command
(see Contents).
By using the @page command you can force a page break within the
region delineated by the @titlepage and @end titlepage
commands and thereby create more than one unnumbered page. This is how
the copyright page is produced. (The @titlepage command might
perhaps have been better named the @titleandadditionalpages
command, but that would have been rather long!)
When you write a manual about a computer program, you should write the version of the program to which the manual applies on the title page. If the manual changes more frequently than the program or is independent of it, you should also include an edition number1 for the manual. This helps readers keep track of which manual is for which version of the program. (The `Top' node should also contain this information; see The Top Node.)
Texinfo provides two main methods for creating a title page. One method
uses the @titlefont, @sp, and @center commands
to generate a title page in which the words on the page are
centered.
The second method uses the @title, @subtitle, and
@author commands to create a title page with black rules under
the title and author lines and the subtitle text set flush to the
right hand side of the page. With this method, you do not specify any
of the actual formatting of the title page. You specify the text
you want, and Texinfo does the formatting.
You may use either method, or you may combine them; see the examples in the sections below.
For extremely simple applications, and for the bastard title page in
traditional book front matter, Texinfo also provides a command
@shorttitlepage which takes the rest of the line as the title.
The argument is typeset on a page by itself and followed by a blank
page.
We have found that it is helpful to refer to versions of independent manuals as `editions' and versions of programs as `versions'; otherwise, we find we are liable to confuse each other in conversation by referring to both the documentation and the software with the same words.