Sequence of the various components of a book into a coherent whole. Front matter, or preliminaries, is the first section of a book, and is usually the smallest section in terms of the number of pages. Incorporating the content,style,format,design, and sequence of the various components of a book into a coherent whole. Front matter, or preliminaries, is the first section of a book, and is usually the smallest section in terms of the number of pages.