Front Matter and Back Matter
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The front matter is a series of topics that are usually placed after the cover page and before the TOC or the content.

The back matter is a series of topics that are usually placed after the content of the book.

Front Matter and Back Matter - XML Fragment
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In the merged map file, the frontmatter topics are wrapped in an <oxy:front-matter> element that has the class bookmap/frontmatter (it is a clone of the original <frontmatter> element from the map):

<bookmap xmlns:ditaarch="http://dita.oasis-open.org/architecture/2005/" ...>
    <oxy:front-page xmlns:oxy="http://www.oxygenxml.com/extensions/author" 
                    class=" front-page/front-page ">
       ...
    </oxy:front-page>
    <oxy:front-matter xmlns:oxy="http://www.oxygenxml.com/extensions/author" 
                  class="- map/topicref bookmap/frontmatter ">
        <concept xmlns:dita-ot="http://dita-ot.sourceforge.net/ns/201007/dita-ot" 
                  class="- topic/topic concept/concept "
            id="unique_1" oid="concept-1">
          ...
    </oxy:front-matter>

For the DITA Map PDF - based on HTML5 & CSS transformation type, the merged map is further processed resulting in a collection of HTML5 <div> elements. These elements preserve the original DITA @class attribute values and add a new value derived from the DITA element name.

<div xmlns:ditaarch="http://dita.oasis-open.org/architecture/2005/" ...>
    <div class=" front-page/front-page front-page">
       ...
    </div>
    <div class="- map/topicref bookmap/frontmatter frontmatter">
        <div class="- topic/topic concept/concept " id="unique_1" oid="concept-1">
        ...
    </div>

Front Matter and Back Matter - Built-in CSS
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The built-in CSS rules are in [PLUGIN_DIR]/css/print/p-bookmap-frontmatter-backmatter.css. By default, it associates the top-level topics that do not represent chapters to a matter-page style of page layout. Each child topic starts on a new page.

How to Remove Page Breaks Between Front Matter Child Topics
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If you do not like the fact that all the topics that enter a bookmap frontmatter start on a new page, you can disable this by using the following rules in your customization CSS:
*[class ~= "map/map"] > *[class ~= "topic/topic"]:not([is-chapter]){
   page-break-before: auto;
}

How to Style the Front Matter and Back Matter Topics
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Suppose you want the topics from the front matter and back matter to start at the middle of the page and use a smaller fine print.

In your customization CSS, add the following:

*[class ~= "map/map"] > *[class ~= "topic/topic"]:not([is-chapter]){
    margin-top: 50%;
    border-top: 5pt solid silver;
    font-size: 0.5em;
}