DocBook Publishers: The Definitive Guide
Editor: Richard Hamilton
Version 1.3.15 for DocBook 5.2
Updated: 4 January, 2026
Copyright © 2010–2026 Norman Walsh.
Table of Contents
- Preface to the DocBook V5.1 Edition
- Preface
- Part I. Introduction
- Part II. Reference
- I. DocBook Element Reference
- dcterms:* — The Publishers schema allows a large selection of elements from the DCTerms namespaceV1.0 Publishers
- *:* — Any element from almost any namespace
- abbrev — An abbreviation, especially one followed by a period
- abstract — A summary
- acknowledgements — Acknowledgements of a book or other componentV5.0
- acronym — An often pronounceable word made from the initial (or selected) letters of a name or phrase
- address — A real-world address, generally a postal address
- affiliation — The institutional affiliation of an individual
- alt — A text-only annotation, often used for accessibility
- anchor — A spot in the document
- answer — An answer to a question posed in a qandaset
- appendix — An appendix in a book or article
- area (db.area) — A region defined for a callout in a graphic or code example
- area (db.area.inareaset) — A region defined for a callout in a graphic or code example
- areaset — A set of related areas in a graphic or code example
- areaspec — A collection of regions in a graphic or code example
- article — An article
- artpagenums — The page numbers of an article as published
- attribution — The source of a block quote or epigraph
- audiodata — Pointer to external audio data
- audioobject — A wrapper for audio data and its associated meta-information
- author — The name of an individual author
- authorgroup — Wrapper for author information when a document has multiple authors or collaborators
- authorinitials — The initials or other short identifier for an author
- bibliocoverage — The spatial or temporal coverage of a document
- bibliodiv — A section of a bibliography
- biblioentry — A raw entry in a bibliography
- bibliography — A bibliography
- biblioid — An identifier for a documentV5.0
- bibliolist — A wrapper for a list of bibliography entries
- bibliomisc — Untyped bibliographic information
- bibliomixed — A cooked entry in a bibliography
- bibliomset — A cooked container for related bibliographic information
- biblioref — A cross-reference to a bibliographic entry
- bibliorelation — The relationship of a document to another
- biblioset — A raw container for related bibliographic information
- bibliosource — The source of a document
- blockquote — A quotation set off from the main text
- book — A book
- bridgehead — A free-floating heading
- callout — A
called out
description of a marked area - calloutlist — A list of
callouts - caption — A caption
- caution — A note of caution
- chapter — A chapter, as of a book
- citation — An inline bibliographic reference to another published work
- citebiblioid — A citation of a bibliographic identifier
- citetitle — The title of a cited work
- city — The name of a city in an address
- co — The location of a callout embedded in text
- collab — Identifies a collaborator
- colophon — Text at the back of a book describing facts about its production
- colspec — Specifications for a column in a table
- confdates — The dates of a conference for which a document was written
- confgroup — A wrapper for document meta-information about a conference
- confnum — An identifier, frequently numerical, associated with a conference for which a document was written
- confsponsor — The sponsor of a conference for which a document was written
- conftitle — The title of a conference for which a document was written
- contractnum — The contract number of a document
- contractsponsor — The sponsor of a contract
- contrib — A summary of the contributions made to a document by a credited source
- copyright — Copyright information about a document
- coref — A cross reference to a co
- country — The name of a country
- cover — Additional content for the cover of a publicationV5.0
- danger — An admonition set off from the text indicating hazardous situationV5.2
- date — The date of publication or revision of a document
- dedication — The dedication of a book or other component
- dialogue — A container for speeches and other forms of communication involving dialogueV1.0 Publishers
- drama — A container for plays and other forms of dramatic presentationV1.0 Publishers
- edition — The name or number of an edition of a document
- editor — The name of the editor of a document
- email — An email address
- emphasis (db._emphasis) — A limited span of emphasized text
- emphasis (db.emphasis) — Emphasized text
- entry — A cell in a table
- entrytbl — A subtable appearing in place of an entry in a table
- epigraph — A short inscription at the beginning of a document or component
- equation — A displayed mathematical equation
- example — A formal example, with a title
- fax — A fax number
- figure — A formal figure, generally an illustration, with a title
- firstname — A given name of a person
- firstterm (db._firstterm) — The first occurrence of a term, with limited contentV5.1
- firstterm (db.firstterm) — The first occurrence of a term
- footnote — A footnote
- footnoteref — A cross reference to a footnote (a footnote mark)
- foreignphrase (db._foreignphrase) — A limited word or phrase in a language other than the primary language of the documentV5.1
- foreignphrase (db.foreignphrase) — A word or phrase in a language other than the primary language of the document
- formalgroup — A group of formal objects, for example subfiguresV5.2
- formalpara — A paragraph with a title
- givenname — The given name of a personV5.1
- glossary — A glossary
- glossdef — A definition in a glossentry
- glossdiv — A division in a glossary
- glossentry — An entry in a glossary or glosslist
- glosslist — A wrapper for a list of glossary entries
- glosssee — A cross-reference from one
glossentryto another - glossseealso — A cross-reference from one glossentry to another
- glossterm (db._glossterm) — A glossary termV5.1
- glossterm (db.glossterm) — A glossary term
- holder — The name of the individual or organization that holds a copyright
- honorific — The title of a person
- imagedata (db.imagedata) — Pointer to external image data
- imagedata (db.imagedata.mathml) — A MathML expression in a media object
- imagedata (db.imagedata.svg) — An SVG drawing in a media object
- imageobject — A wrapper for image data and its associated meta-information
- imageobjectco — A wrapper for an image object with callouts
- important — An admonition set off from the text
- index — An index to a book or part of a book
- indexterm (db.indexterm.endofrange) — Identifies the end of a range associated with an indexed term
- indexterm (db.indexterm.singular) — A wrapper for an indexed term
- indexterm (db.indexterm.startofrange) — A wrapper for an indexed term that covers a range
- info (db.info) — A wrapper for information about a component or other blockV5.0
- info (db.titleforbidden.info) — A wrapper for information about a component or other block without a titleV5.0
- info (db.titleonly.info) — A wrapper for information about a component or other block with only a titleV5.0
- info (db.titleonlyreq.info) — A wrapper for information about a component or other block with only a required titleV5.0
- info (db.titlereq.info) — A wrapper for information about a component or other block with a required titleV5.0
- informalequation — A displayed mathematical equation without a title
- informalexample — A displayed example without a title
- informalfigure — A untitled figure
- informaltable — A table without a title
- inlineequation — A mathematical equation or expression occurring inline
- inlinemediaobject — An inline media object (video, audio, image, and so on)
- inlinestagedir — An inline stage directionV1.1 Publishers
- issuenum — The number of an issue of a journal
- itemizedlist — A list in which each entry is marked with a bullet or other dingbat
- itermset — A set of index terms in the meta-information of a document
- jobtitle — The title of an individual in an organization
- keyword — One of a set of keywords describing the content of a document
- keywordset — A set of keywords describing the content of a document
- label — A label on a question or answer
- legalnotice — A statement of legal obligations or requirements
- line — A line of dialogue or other form of communicationV1.0 Publishers
- lineage — The portion of a person's name indicating a relationship to ancestors
- linegroup — A grouping of lines in dialogue or other form of communicationV1.0 Publishers
- link — A hypertext link
- listitem — A wrapper for the elements of a list item
- literal — Inline text that is some literal value
- literallayout — A block of text in which line breaks and white space are to be reproduced faithfully
- mathphrase — A mathematical phrase that can be represented with ordinary text and a small amount of markup
- mediaobject — A displayed media object (video, audio, image, etc.)
- member — An element of a simple list
- meta (db.meta.content) — A generic metadata elementV5.2
- meta (db.meta.empty) — A generic metadata elementV5.2
- mml:* — Any element from the MathML namespace
- multimediaparam — Application specific parameters for a media playerV5.1
- note — A message set off from the text
- olink — A link that addresses its target indirectly
- optional — Optional information
- orderedlist — A list in which each entry is marked with a sequentially incremented label
- org — An organization and associated metadataV5.0
- orgdiv — A division of an organization
- orgname — The name of an organization
- otheraddr — Uncategorized information in address
- othercredit — A person or entity, other than an author or editor, credited in a document
- othername — A component of a person's name that is not a first name, surname, or lineage
- pagenums — The numbers of the pages in a book, for use in a bibliographic entry
- para — A paragraph
- part — A division in a book
- partintro — An introduction to the contents of a part
- person — A person and associated metadataV5.0
- personblurb — A short description or note about a person
- personname — The personal name of an individual
- phone — A telephone number
- phrase (db._phrase) — A limited span of text
- phrase (db.phrase) — A span of text
- pob — A post office box in an address
- poetry — A container for poetryV1.0 Publishers
- postcode — A postal code in an address
- preface — Introductory matter preceding the first chapter of a book
- primary — The primary word or phrase under which an index term should be sorted
- printhistory — The printing history of a document
- procedure — A list of operations to be performed in a well-defined sequence
- productname — The formal name of a product
- productnumber — A number assigned to a product
- pubdate — The date of publication of a document
- publisher — The publisher of a document
- publishername — The name of the publisher of a document
- qandadiv — A titled division in a qandaset
- qandaentry — A question/answer set within a qandaset
- qandaset — A question-and-answer set
- question — A question in a qandaset
- quote (db._quote) — A limited inline quotationV5.1
- quote (db.quote) — An inline quotation
- releaseinfo — Information about a particular release of a document
- remark — A remark (or comment) intended for presentation in a draft manuscript
- result — A wrapper for identifying the results of a procedure or stepV5.1
- revdescription — A extended description of a revision to a document
- revhistory — A history of the revisions to a document
- revision — An entry describing a single revision in the history of the revisions to a document
- revnumber — A document revision number
- revremark — A description of a revision to a document
- row (db.entrytbl.row) — A row in a table
- row (db.row) — A row in a table
- secondary — A secondary word or phrase in an index term
- section — A recursive section
- see — Part of an index term directing the reader instead to another entry in the index
- seealso — Part of an index term directing the reader also to another entry in the index
- seriesvolnums — Numbers of the volumes in a series of books
- set — A collection of books
- setindex — An index to a set of books
- shortaffil — A brief description of an affiliation
- sidebar — A portion of a document that is isolated from the main narrative flow
- simpara — A paragraph that contains only text and inline markup, no block elements
- simplelist — An undecorated list of single words or short phrases
- simplesect — A section of a document with no subdivisions
- spanspec — Formatting information for a spanned column in a table
- speaker — Designates a person who is giving a speech or lectureV1.0 Publishers
- stagedir — A stage directionV1.1 Publishers
- state — A state or province in an address
- step — A unit of action in a procedure
- stepalternatives — Alternative steps in a procedure
- street — A street address in an address
- subject — One of a group of terms describing the subject matter of a document
- subjectset — A set of terms describing the subject matter of a document
- subjectterm — A term in a group of terms describing the subject matter of a document
- subscript — A subscript (as in H₂O, the molecular formula for water)
- substeps — A wrapper for steps that occur within steps in a procedure
- subtitle — The subtitle of a document
- superscript — A superscript (as in x², the mathematical notation for x multiplied by itself)
- surname — An inherited or family name; in western cultures the last name
- svg:* — Any element from the SVG namespace
- table — A formal table in a document
- task — A task to be completed
- taskprerequisites — The prerequisites for a task
- taskrelated — Information related to a task
- tasksummary — A summary of a task
- tbody (db.cals.entrytbl.tbody) — A wrapper for the rows of a table or informal table
- tbody (db.cals.tbody) — A wrapper for the rows of a table or informal table
- templatename — The identifier for a template, in the generic programming senseV5.2
- term — The word or phrase being defined or described in a variable list
- termdef — An inline definition of a term
- tertiary — A tertiary word or phrase in an index term
- textdata — Pointer to external text data
- textobject — A wrapper for a text description of an object and its associated meta-information
- tfoot — A table footer consisting of one or more rows
- tgroup — A wrapper for the main content of a table, or part of a table
- thead (db.cals.entrytbl.thead) — A table header consisting of one or more rows
- thead (db.cals.thead) — A table header consisting of one or more rows
- tip — A suggestion to the user, set off from the text
- title — The text of the title of a section of a document or of a formal block-level element
- titleabbrev — The abbreviation of a title
- toc — A table of contents
- trademark — A trademark
- uri — A Uniform Resource Identifier
- variablelist — A list in which each entry is composed of a set of one or more terms and an associated description
- varlistentry — A wrapper for a set of terms and the associated description in a variable list
- videodata — Pointer to external video data
- videoobject — A wrapper for video data and its associated meta-information
- volumenum — The volume number of a document in a set (as of books in a set or articles in a journal)
- warning — An admonition set off from the text
- wordasword — A word meant specifically as a word and not representing anything else
- xref — A cross reference to another part of the document
- year — The year of publication of a document
- I. DocBook Element Reference
- Part III. Appendixes
- Glossary
- Index
List of Figures
List of Tables