§6.6

Printed Page Numbers

The page number printed on the sheet—where is it recorded?

✅ NormativeSettled. The requirement holds as written.📄 Page ruleCan be applied from the page alone.Read §6.6 in the RFC ↗

The requirement

A printed page number (the folio) MUST be kept in the header or footer band it is printed in, verbatim, and MUST NOT appear as a loose element in the body. When the printed page number is requested, it MUST also be recorded on its own for the page, as printed, and MUST NOT be inferred for a page that prints none.

When it applies

The folio is the number a document prints on itself: 26, Page 6, Page 3 of 12, iv, A-3. It sits in the top or bottom margin, often beside a date, a form number or a URL.

Sketch of the printed page — layout, not output

FORM CMS-2567  Previous Versions Obsolete       If continuation sheet Page 3 of 12
                                                                      ↑ the folio

Reading the examples. Each one pairs a source page with the output the rule expects. ✅ Sample: the rule applies. ❌ Counter-sample: it looks like it applies and does not, or a rendering got it wrong. A non-conforming output, in red, is shown only for contrast. … marks content left out of an excerpt.

The point, in a small example

Both source pages belong to one document. Preserve the heading depth, classify repeated margin bands consistently, and keep each printed folio with its footer. Separate folio extraction is not requested in this example. These pages are made up to isolate the rule.

✅ SampleConstructedThe rule applies

Document structure continues across pages

Two consecutive interior pages are shown in order. The document title is on an earlier cover; sections use level 2 and subsections level 3. The running header is plain text on both pages. The printed folios stay in their footer bands; they are not physical sheet indices.

Source page

Expected output

Markdown

FIELD GUIDE

## 2 Maintenance

### 2.1 Inspection

Inspect daily.

Revision A · Page 4

---

FIELD GUIDE

### 2.2 Cleaning

Clean weekly.

Revision A · Page 5

Two records

Record	Requirement
In the band	The folio is part of the header or footer it is printed in. The band MUST be kept together and verbatim — see Recurring Page Furniture (§4.6).
On its own	When the printed page number is requested (Output Options (§3.5)), the number MUST also be recorded alone for the page — the sidecar's `printedPageNumber`, see The Sidecar (§3.4). The label MUST be stripped and the numbering kept as printed: `6`, not `Page 6`; roman numerals stay roman; `A-3` stays `A-3`.

The offset is the point

Front matter, covers and inserts mean printed page 1 is often not sheet 1. A magazine feature can open on sheet 1 and print 26; a report can run twelve sheets of front matter before printing 1. That mapping is a fact about the document, not the page, and it is the reason the number is worth recording separately — a reader citing "page 26" cannot otherwise be sent to the right sheet.

The recorded number MUST be the number the page prints. It MUST NOT be renumbered to match the sheet position.
A folio MUST NOT be inferred for a page that prints none.

Pages that print nothing

Covers, plates and continuation sheets frequently carry no folio; their printed page number is empty, which is not an error. A pre-printed blank, Page ___ of ___, is also no folio: the blank MUST be transcribed in the band (as [blank]) and no number recorded.

A folio never sits in the body

A number that ends up as a loose line among the page's content means the band was read wrongly. The folio MUST belong to its margin band whether or not the rest of that band was recognised — the same never invent failure as promoting furniture to a heading.

Rule id layout-printed-page-numbers · rule layout