All Standard Ebooks contain a standardized set of sections that are included in each ebook, and which are usually generated from template files. These sections include sections like the titlepage, imprint, and Uncopyright.
The title string
The title string is a sentence listing the title of the ebook, its author, and any other contributors. It is used in various Standard Ebooks template files.
The title string is formed with the following algorithm.
Start with an empty string.
Append the title of the work, without any subtitles.
Append , by, then the author. If there are two authors, separate them with and. If there are three or more authors, each one is separated by ,, and the final one is preceded by , and.
If there is a translator, append . Translated by, then the translator name. Multiple translators are handled in the same manner as multiple authors.
If there is an illustrator, append . Illustrated by, then the illustrator name. Multiple illustrators are handled in the same manner as multiple authors.
While the title string may contain periods, it never ends in a period.
The table of contents
The table of contents (the ToC) is not viewable as a page in the ebook’s reading order. Instead, the reader’s ereading system displays the ToC as part of its reading interface.
These rules outline how to structure the ToC. Typically, the se print-toc tool constructs the ToC according to these rules, without further changes being necessary.
The <nav> element
The first child of the ToC’s <body> element is a <nav> element with the semantic inflection toc.
The first child of the <nav> element is a <h2epub:type="title">Table of Contents</h2> element.
The second child of the <nav> element is an <ol> element representing the items in the Table of Contents.
The top-level <ol> element
The <nav> element’s top-level <ol> element contains a list of items in the Table of Contents.
The first child is a link to the titlepage.
The second child is a link to the imprint.
The second-to-last child is a link to the colophon.
The last child is a link to the Uncopyright.
In books with half title pages, the half title page is listed in the ToC and the next sibling is an <ol> element containing the book’s contents.
<li> descendents
Each <li> contains an <a> element pointing to a file or hash, and optionally also contains an <ol> element representing a nested series of ToC items.
If an <li> element contains a nested <ol> element, that <li>’s first child is an <a> element that points to the beginning of that section.
Roman numerals in the ToC have the semantic inflection of z3998:roman. A <span> element is included if the entire contents of the <a> element are not a Roman numeral.
<a> descendents
The title, subtitle, ordinal, and any related title epub semantics are not included in ToC entries. Their usage context is only within actual heading content.
The text of the <a> element is decided as follows:
If there is no <hgroup> in the section, the text becomes the inner XHTML of the top <h1>–<h6> element with any of the above semantics removed.
If there is an <hgroup> element:
If the <hgroup>’s closest parent <section> or <article> has an epub:type value of part, division, or volume, then keep all <hgroup> children.
Otherwise, if the <hgroup>’s closest parent <section> or <article> has an epub:type value of halftitlepage, or if the first child of the <hgroup> has the title semantic, then discard any children with the subtitle semantic.
Then, the text becomes the inner XHTML of the first <hgroup> child. If there is a second child, append a colon and space to the text, then the inner XHTML of the second child. The above semantics are then removed.
Examples
Result: A Daughter of Albion
Result: Book <spanepub:type="z3998:roman">I</span>: The Coming of the Martians
Result: <spanepub:type="z3998:roman">I</span>: A Fellow Traveller
Result: Epilogue
The landmarks <nav> element
After the first <nav> element, there is a second <nav> element with the semantic inflection of landmarks.
The first child is an <h2epub:type="title">Landmarks</h2> element.
The second child is an <ol> element listing the major structural divisions of the book.
<li> descendents
Each <li> element contains a link to one of the major structural divisions of the book. In general, a structural division is any section of the book that is not part of the body text, plus one element representing the beginning of the body text.
Each <li> element has the computed semantic inflection of top-level <section> element in the file. The computed semantic inflection includes inherited semantic inflection from the <body> element.
The body text, as a single unit regardless of internal divisions, is represented by a link to the first file of the body text. In a prose novel, this is usually Chapter 1 or Part 1. In a collection this is usually the first item, like the first short story in a short story collection. The text is the title of the work as represented in the metadata <dc:title> element.
The titlepage
The Standard Ebooks titlepage is the first item in the ebook’s content flow. Standard Ebooks do not have a separate cover page file within the content flow.
The title page has a <title> element with the value Titlepage.
The titlepage contains one <sectionid="titlepage"epub:type="titlepage"> element which in turn contains one <imgsrc="../images/titlepage.svg"> element.
The <img> element has its alt attribute set to The titlepage for the Standard Ebooks edition of TITLE_STRING, where TITLE_STRING is the Standard Ebooks title string for the ebook.
A complete titlepage looks like the following template:
The imprint
The Standard Ebooks imprint is the second item in the ebook’s content flow.
The imprint has a <title> element with the value Imprint.
The imprint contains one <sectionid="imprint"epub:type="imprint"> element, which in turn contains one <header> element with the Standard Ebooks logo, followed by a series of <p> elements containing the imprint’s content.
The second <p> element contains links to the online transcription that the ebook is based off of, followed by a link to the online page scans used to proof against.
While the template lists Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive as the default sources for transcriptions and scans, these may be adjusted to the specific sources used for a particular ebook.
When a source is preceded by “the”, “the” is outside of the link to the source.
A complete imprint looks like the following template:
The half title page
A half title page is included when there is front matter of any type in an ebook besides the titlepage and imprint.
The half title page is located after the last item of front matter, before the body matter.
The half title page has a <title> element containing the full title of the ebook.
The half title page contains one <sectionid="halftitlepage"epub:type="halftitlepage"> element, which in turn contains either one <h1epub:type="fulltitle"> element containing the full title of the ebook, or one <hgroupepub:type="fulltitle"> element containing one <h1epub:type="title"> element and one <h2epub:type="subtitle"> element. The half title page is the only place where an <h1> element appears.
If the ebook has a subtitle, it is included in the half title page.
The fulltitle semantic is applied to the top-level heading element in the half title page. This is usually either <hgroup> in works with subtitles or <h1> in works without.
Formatting for the <h1> element follows patterns in 7.2.9.
A complete half title page looks like the following template:
The colophon
The colophon is the second-to-last item in the ebook’s content flow.
The colophon has a <title> element with the value Colophon.
The half title page contains one <sectionid="colophon"epub:type="colophon"> element, which in turn contains one <header> element with the Standard Ebooks logo, followed by a series of <p> elements containing the colophon’s content.
Names
Within <p> elements, proper names except for the book title and cover art title are wrapped in an <a> element pointing to the name’s Wikipedia page, or to a link representing the name, like a personal homepage.
If a name does not have a Wikipedia entry, the name is wrapped in <bepub:type="z3998:personal-name">.
Two names are separated by and. Three or more names are separated by commas, with the final name separated by , and. (I.e., with an Oxford comma.)
Any anonymous contributor is listed as An Anonymous Volunteer.
Sponsors
An ebook may have a financial sponsor. If so, the following block:
is replaced with:
Subsections
Subsections are represented by a <p> element.
Within each <p> element, a <br/> element is placed before and after any proper name block. A proper name block may contain more than one name in a direct series (like a list of transcribers).
The first <p> block names the book, its publication year, and its author.
If the book has a translator, a translator block follows the author name in the same <p> element. The translator block follows this formula: It was translated from LANGUAGE in YEAR by <a href="TRANSLATOR_WIKI_URL">TRANSLATOR</a>..
The second <p> block names the Standard Ebooks producer, the original transcribers, and the page scan sources.
If the Standard ebooks producer also transcribed the book in its entirety, then the first line becomes: <p>This ebook was transcribed and produced for<br/>.
The third <p> block names the cover art, cover artist, and the typefaces used on the cover and title pages.
The fourth <p> block lists the original release date of the ebook and its Standard Ebooks page URL.
The fifth <p> block is a short formula inviting volunteers.
An example of a complete colophon
The Uncopyright
Where traditionally published ebooks may contain a copyright page at the front of the ebook, Standard Ebooks contain an Uncopyright page at the end of the ebook.
The Uncopyright page is the last item in the ebook’s content flow.
The Uncopyright page follows the template created by se create-draft exactly.