### 3.2.4 `@settitle`: Set the document title

In order to be made into a printed manual, a Texinfo file must contain a line that looks like this:

    @settitle title

Write the `@settitle` command at the beginning of a line and follow it on the same line by the title. This tells TeX the title to use in a header or footer. Do not write anything else on the line; anything on the line after the command is considered part of the title, including what would otherwise be a comment.

The `@settitle` command should precede everything that generates actual output in TeX.

In the HTML file produced by `makeinfo`, title also serves as the document ‘`<title>`’ and the default document description in the ‘`<head>`’ part; see `@documentdescription`: Summary text, for how to change that.

The title in the `@settitle` command does not affect the title as it appears on the title page. Thus, the two do not need not match exactly. A practice we recommend is to include the version or edition number of the manual in the `@settitle` title; on the title page, the version number generally appears as a `@subtitle` so it would be omitted from the `@title`. (See section `@titlepage`.)

Conventionally, when TeX formats a Texinfo file for double-sided output, the title is printed in the left-hand (even-numbered) page headings and the current chapter title is printed in the right-hand (odd-numbered) page headings. (TeX learns the title of each chapter from each `@chapter` command.) By default, no page footer is printed.

Even if you are printing in a single-sided style, TeX looks for an `@settitle` command line, in case you include the manual title in the heading.

TeX prints page headings only for that text that comes after the `@end titlepage` command in the Texinfo file, or that comes after an `@headings` command that turns on headings. (See section The `@headings` Command, for more information.)

You may, if you wish, create your own, customized headings and footings. See section Page Headings, for a detailed discussion of this.

This document was generated on a sunny day using texi2html.