Summary

Meaningful titles allow users to discover and organize their EPUB publications.

Techniques

Examples

Example 1 — Simple publication title
<metadata xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" …>
   <dc:title>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland</dc:title>
   …
</metadata>

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I use multiple dc:title elements for series titles, subtitles, etc.?

Although EPUB allows you to add more than one dc:title element, it is not recommended. Most reading systems only recognize the first title element they find. Readers consequently may not have access to the other titles.

While this may not be problematic in many cases, if the series title is the first title in the metadata, then all books in the series could end up with the same name in the user's bookshelf (e.g., all three parts of the Lord of the Rings could end up named "The Lord of the Rings" in the bookshelf if the unique book titles are in separate elements).

EPUB 3 tried to address having multiple dc:title elements by adding the title-type and display-seq properties to specify more information about the type of title and how to display it, but reading systems largely ignore these properties.

Explanation

A title is a required element in all versions of EPUB. It is expressed in the package document's metadata section in a Dublin Core title element.

This title is typically used to identify the publication in reading systems (vendor systems may use other metadata, such as that supplied directly by publishers). The title enables the user not only to know what publication they have in their bookshelf or library but allows the publication to be easily found again.

When authors omit a title, reading systems will normally generate a generic name, such as "Untitled." The more publications like this a user loads, the harder it becomes to distinguish which is which.

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