A preface is an introduction to a book written by the author of the book. An introductory essay written by a different person is a foreword and precedes an author's preface. The preface often closes with acknowledgements of those who assisted in the project. A preface is usually signed (and the date and place of writing often follow the typeset signature); a foreword by another person is always signed. Information essential to the main text is generally placed in a set of explanatory notes, or perhaps in an "Introduction" that may be paginated with Arabic numerals, rather than in the preface. The term preface can also mean any preliminary or introductory statement. It is sometimes abbreviated pref. A foreword is a literary device that is often found in the beginning of a piece of literature, before the introduction. ... Numerals sans-serif Arabic numerals, known formally as Hindu-Arabic numerals, and also as Indian numerals, Hindu numerals, Western Arabic numerals, European numerals, or Western numerals, are the most common symbolic representation of numbers around the world. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• A history of the preface in one million languages is contained in Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven. The Social Dimensions of Fiction: On the Rhetoric and Function of Prefacing Novels in the Nineteenth-Century Canadas. Braunschweig-Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher (Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn), 1993.