A book title should have one approved spelling before anyone opens the EPUB settings. Use that wording as the authority, then trace it through the stored package: dc:title in the OPF, the h1 on the title page, and the alt text on the cover page. A cover filename is not a title record, and a convincing title-page preview does not prove that the package metadata agrees.
The retained STUDIO-374 fixture gives this check a concrete result. Its approved string is STUDIO-374 Verified Title. That exact value appears in the OPF, the title-page heading, and the cover image's alternative text. The package also identifies cover.png as the cover image. For the search intent “EPUB title metadata cover title page,” the important boundary is that the test does not prove what words are drawn into the tiny synthetic bitmap or how a reading application displays it; the visual cover remains a separate checkpoint.
Write the Authority Before Opening the Wizard
Create one publication card containing the final title, subtitle, and volume wording. Record who approved it and when. Folder names, draft filenames, design tickets, and notes from earlier edits may help locate assets, but none of them should silently replace the approved line.
The controlled case uses five chapters and one cover. Its title authority is STUDIO-374 Verified Title, its declared language is ja, and its publisher is Publisher-374. The fixed publication-date input was 2026-10-21; the OPF also contains a generated timestamp, 2026-09-03T12:00:00+09:00. Those date fields are not treated as title evidence.
Copy the approved title as a string, including punctuation, spaces, and volume markers. If two acceptable variants remain on the card, the package inspector cannot determine which is correct. Editorial approval must resolve that choice before generation.
Begin the Stored Check at dc:title
Reopen the output as a ZIP archive and inspect OEBPS/content.opf. The retained EPUB has SHA-256 79f96c18…618d3; its dc:title is STUDIO-374 Verified Title. Both the pre-generation plan and the generated package inspection returned valid=true.
The OPF value is the book's internal title metadata. It is not a guarantee about a retailer listing, but it is the proper first point for this consistency check. If it contains an old working title, do not disguise the mismatch by renaming the EPUB file. Keep that failed output, correct the Title input, generate a separately named candidate, and reopen its OPF.
Use dc:language=ja, dc:publisher=Publisher-374, and the five-chapter shape as identity checks. They reduce the chance that an operator reads a title from the wrong package. Matching title words alone cannot prove that the EPUB contains the intended manuscript.
Read the Title Page as Reader-Facing Text
The next file is OEBPS/Text/title.xhtml. In the fixture, both the HTML title and the visible h1 say STUDIO-374 Verified Title. Compare the h1 directly with the publication card and the OPF value; do not settle for a screenshot from an earlier build.
Keeping the order OPF first, title page second is useful. A correct-looking page can otherwise hide stale metadata. The worksheet should give each location its own row, path, extracted value, and verdict.
If only the title page is stale, return to the generation input rather than patching the XHTML inside the EPUB. A new export preserves a reproducible source-to-package path. Reopen the new title.xhtml and also confirm that the previously correct OPF did not regress.
Audit the Cover as Mapping, Text Alternative, and Artwork
The package-level cover test has three parts. The OPF manifest lists Images/cover.png with the cover-image property. cover.xhtml refers to that resource, and its img alt is STUDIO-374 Verified Title. The retained PNG is 68 bytes with SHA-256 431ced69…65460.
These observations establish the cover role, link, and text alternative. They do not establish that the approved title is visibly drawn in the bitmap. The fixture is deliberately tiny, and no graphical reader was used. A production workflow therefore needs an artwork review in which a person opens the approved high-resolution cover and compares the visible words with the same publication card.
This boundary prevents two errors. A correct image may still lack the package's cover role. Conversely, correct cover-image metadata and alt text cannot rescue artwork that visibly carries an old title. Record the internal and visual checks separately.
Use the Five-Chapter Shape to Reject the Wrong Book
The fixture's navigation document and NCX each contain five entries, from STUDIO-374 Chapter 1 through Chapter 5, in the same order. Its spine has nine items: cover, title page, navigation, five chapters, and colophon. There are six image references—one cover and one in each chapter—and no missing resources.
Those counts are not substitutes for title comparison. They establish that the package being inspected is the intended five-chapter sample. If dc:title agrees but the navigation contains three chapters, stop. The likely problem is a mixed or misidentified output, not title typography.
Tie every extracted value to the same full EPUB digest. This rule prevents an attractive but false report assembled from the title page of one build, the OPF of another, and the cover mapping of a third.
Repair According to the Location of the Mismatch
A stale OPF and stale title page point back to the title input. A correct OPF and title page with obsolete visible cover words point to the approved artwork. A missing cover-image property or broken cover.xhtml link points to the cover assignment. Diagnose the location before editing anything.
Retain the failed EPUB with its digest and extracted mismatch. Generate the repair under a new name. Then repeat the sequence: OPF title, title-page h1, cover alt, cover role and href, followed by the five-chapter identity check. Rechecking already-correct fields matters because a broad repair can accidentally replace the manuscript or cover.
No GUI Title field, save notification, autosave event, retailer, or reading-device rendering was observed in this command-driven evidence run. valid=true must not be expanded into a claim about those interfaces.
Deliver a Three-Location Title Record
The handoff record should contain the title authority, EPUB SHA, OPF dc:title, title-page h1, cover-page alt, cover href, and cover-image property. For the retained fixture, the three title strings all equal STUDIO-374 Verified Title; the package also has nav 5, NCX 5, spine 9, six image references, and zero missing resources.
Add a separate unresolved row for visible cover artwork, reader display, and retailer acceptance. The package check is complete only for the internal evidence it actually measured. Artwork approval becomes complete when a named reviewer inspects the production cover pixels, not when the manifest contains a cover role.
This is the practical meaning of consistent EPUB title metadata: one editorial authority is traceable through the package title, title page, and cover-page mapping, while the artwork itself receives an explicit visual review. When those responsibilities are separated, a working title cannot hide behind a successful export.