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The Header section is one of the four main sections of the xkcd.com website.
The header text is usually updated when Randall has news to share or wants to add information about a specific comic. The default header text states:

Usually, changes to the header text show up in all comics. However, for certain comics, its header text is changed permanently, which means that comic's page won't be affected by changes to the global header text like the rest of the comics. You can see the list of these Comic-specific header texts below.

Usually, the global header text is changed back to the default once the novelty of the news ends. Recently, the default header text has not been used for extended periods of time. The most recent header text change can be found at the top of the Global header text section.

Use this list to quickly jump to a specific header text, or click here to jump to the most recent one.

Contents

Comic-specific header text[edit]

Ambox notice.png This explanation is incomplete:
UPDATE: SEE HERE for more info!. This list is missing many comic-specific header texts. Don't remove this notice unless they've all been mentioned here. See the Talk page for some examples. Also, if you have infinite spare time, please remove the bullet points on the page and use normal paragraphs. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

When editing the section, list the changes chronologically with the date of the web archive link and hyperlink each date. Include an internal link to the comic at the time of each change and describe the modifications with relevant information. Place the most recent changes at the top.

2957: A Crossword Puzzle[edit]

2916: Machine[edit]

2765: Escape Speed[edit]

2601: Instructions[edit]

2445: Checkbox[edit]

2288: Collector's Edition[edit]

This comic's header mentions the people who helped put it together.

The text:

It thanks those that helped Randall create the 2020 April Fools' Day comic, which had taken two extra days before it was released due to the complex nature of the comic. Due to the delay the next comic, 2289: Scenario 4, was released already the day after the Fool's comic, even though it was thus on a Saturday! Since this header was related only to the Fools' comic, it was removed from the front page header, when the next comic was released, but it stayed up as one of the permanent different headers on this comic

1928: Seven Years[edit]

2017-12-14 It was released as a response to another cancer diagnosis, this is explained in the Header text which has replaced the standard xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The new one is this one, with the active link included: The text (with link):

Kate Beaton is the creator of the web comic Hark! A Vagrant.

On 2019-08-17, close to two years later, the message was still there and also 2021-12-26 just past four years later.

1830: ISS Solar Transit 2[edit]

2017-04-28 This header links back to 1828: ISS Solar Transit, a comic with the same joke setup released on the Monday of the same week

1723: Meteorite Identification[edit]

Randall realized that his comic was almost a copy of some other person. And he has since then acknowledged this on the comics specific page see more here. At the time of this post, in the newest saved version on the archive from 2016-10-10 it is still there and says:

1679: Substitutions 3[edit]

This was the third installment of Substitutions and as he did with the second linking to the first and telling about browser extensions for this he did the same with this one: The text:

It was on the main page while the comic was up, for instance here on 2016-05-12.

1663: Garden[edit]

This comic had a header text to help people use the comic when it came out. For some time this text was the main header text, but after a while is disappeared from the main header, but remained as the header for Garden.

Today and as of the newest saved version on the archive from 2016-12-31 it is still there and says:

1625: Substitutions 2[edit]

This was the second installment of Substitutions and Randall links to the first and tells about browser extensions for this: The text:

It was on the main page while the comic was up, for instance here on 2016-01-04.

1079: United Shapes[edit]

The header was unique for this comic on the day it came out: 2012-07-09. The text:

The text was never on other pages:

There are simply no version of the front page from the 11th and 12th of July 2012. But from other pages it can be shown that from the 11th there was a difference.

The final text that is still on US today:

The first version was on the main page while the comic was up.

1047: Approximations[edit]

It has a permanent text saying that many people emailed Randall about another approximation for one year than the one given in the comic.

The unique text:

There was a different header on other comics even while this comic was on the front page with the unique text. See Plus store link.

1037: Umwelt[edit]

It has a permanent promotion of the store already from the release day on 2012-04-01: The unique text:

It stayed on the front page while this comic was the most recent, so for instance also two days later on 2012-04-03

1031: s/keyboard/leopard/[edit]

In response to the idea of having you browser replace keyboard with leopard a reader made a script that could do just that. Randall seem to have gotten this script before release (or at least on the day of release) as it was already the header text on 2012-03-19 the day the comic was released. The unique text is:

It was never changed on the other comics so was only on the front while this comic was up until 2012-03-21

The next comic 1032: Networking came out on 2012-03-21 and here the header text has returned to what it was before the leopard comic: xkcd Holistic Browser.

996: Making Things Difficult[edit]

Randall links to a blog post about cancer as related to this cancer comic The unique text:

980: Money[edit]

Randall notes his thoughts about making it and makes a promotion of the poster. The unique text:

977: Map Projections[edit]

Randall notes that a person had birthday on the release of this comic about maps, and this guy has maps on his homepage The unique text:

851: Na[edit]

After Randall made this comic, he realized he could have "made it better" and changed the header text to:

See more about it in that comics trivia section.

739: Malamanteau[edit]

Randall notes that he has changed this comics license, so it can be used on Wikipedia. The text:

When the comic came out it had the normal header text from that time, as seen here two days after release on 2010-05-14.

488: Steal This Comic[edit]

Randall is tired of DRM, an acronym standing for Digital Rights Management. This comic displays this. He thus make a promotion of Amazon that sells music without DRM. The text:

The header text was on the comic from the release day, here seen the day after on the first archived version from 2008-10-14.

472: House of Pancakes[edit]

This comic's header notes its status as a parody:

Only on the days this comic was the newest was this header featured on the front page of xkcd for instance as seen here the day after release on 2008-09-06.

Global header text[edit]

When editing the section, list the changes chronologically with the date of the web archive link and hyperlink each date. Include an internal link to the newest comic at the time of each change and describe the modifications with relevant information. Position the last comic displaying the header text below the other data and place the most recent change at the top.

2024-12-05 - Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF? - order[edit]

2024-12-05.

As of today 2025-04-08 this header is still up, for the fourth month in row.

2024-11-16 - Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF? - preorder[edit]

2024-11-16.

2024-10-16 - Promotion of Kamala Harris for president[edit]

2024-10-17

2024-05-15 - Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF? - preorder[edit]

2024-05-15

After a month of endorsing endorses Harris the heder text returned to this again, see 2024-110-16 - Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF? -preorder.

2024-03-20 - What If? is on YouTube![edit]

2024-03-20

The only text version from the previous header was trimmed having some words removed taking it down from four to three lines (and solving the bad alignment that happened five days before at the end of the previous header text).

The promotion of the what if? franchise continues for the second year running. A few words were taken off as the YouTube channel was no longer new at this point. This version ended on 2024-05-14, while 2932: Driving PSA was on the front page. But the what if? promotion continued

2023-11-29 - What If? is now on YouTube![edit]

2023-11-29

There was only text this time.

This is thus not a promotion of the what if? 2 book but still promotion of the what if? franchise. A small change happened on 2024-03-14, as the first two lines became one line which made the alignment worse. So it seemed strange to do this. It looked like normal up until 2024-03-13. But it only lasted five days before a change was made that made it into a new although very similar header text. This version ended on 2024-03-19, while 2908: Moon Armor Index was on the front page, but was replaced by a very similar what if? header.

2023-08-31 - What if? 2 is now available in paperback in the UK![edit]

2023-08-31

This version was still up in the middle of November 2023 when this segment was updated. This version ended on 2023-11-28, while 2860: Decay Modes was on the front page, but was replaced by another What If? header.

2023-02-17 - What if? 2 picture only[edit]

2023-02-17

This version ended on 2023-08-30, while 2821: Path Minimization was on the front page, but was replaced by another What If? 2 header.

2022-09-23 - What if? 2 Instant New York Times Bestseller[edit]

2022-09-23

This version ended on 2023-02-16, while 2738: Omniknot was on the front page, but was replaced by another What If? 2 header,

2022-09-13 - What if? 2 is available now[edit]

2022-09-13

This thus ended the pre-release promotion of the book, that began on 2022-01-31, plus of course the three weeks of countdown before. For a sum total of 8 months and three days.

This version ended on 2022-09-22, but was replaced by another What If? 2 header, while 2675: Pilot Priority List was on the front page.

2022-09-12 - One day to What if? 2 comes out[edit]

2022-09-12

2022-09-12 - Three days to What if? 2 comes out[edit]

2022-09-11

2022-09-07 - Less than one week to What if? 2 comes out[edit]

2022-09-07

2022-08-27 - Preorder What if? 2 - with image - again[edit]

2022-08-27

It ended on 2022-09-06.

2022-08-17 - What if? 2 book tour[edit]

2022-08-17

This header thus continues the promotion of the new book, which was at the time was only 27 days away (or 6 dog months).

The header stayed the same until 2022-08-26.

2022-08-11 - Preorder What if? 2 - with image[edit]

2022-08-11

The message in the header was not really changed, but the meaning of the text from the previous header was now written in an image, although the text did change somewhat.

2022-07-19 - Preorder What if? 2[edit]

2022-07-19

The header looked a lot like the previous one, only part of the text changed.

2022-01-31 - What if? 2[edit]

2022-02-01

It will be interesting to see how long this version of the promotion for the new books stays up. But most likely there will be promotion for the book until release, and then more after the release.

2022-01-10 - Standard text with countdown[edit]

2022-01-10.

It was last up on 2022-01-31 when 2574: Autoresponder was on the front page.

2022-01-08 - Back to standard text[edit]

2022-01-08.

2021-12-20 - What If in stock[edit]

2021-12-20.

It was last seen on 2022-01-06 when 2564: Sunshield was up.

2020-06-03 - Black Lives Matter[edit]

2020-06-03.

It stayed like this until 2020-06-16 when 2320: Millennium Problems was up.

On April 1st 2021 the front page header changed to mention who made the April Fools' comic.

It was last up on 2021-12-19 when 2556: Turing Complete was on the front page.

2020-04-05 - Empty header[edit]

2020-04-05.

It stayed empty like this until 2020-06-02 when 2314: Carcinization was on the front page.

2020-04-04 - Put together by[edit]

2020-04-04.

Due to the delay the next comic, 2289: Scenario 4, was released already the day after the Fool's comic, even though it was thus on a Saturday!

2020-04-02 - Technical Reasons[edit]

2020-04-02.

Randall turned out to, again, have problems with his complicated and interactive April Fools' Day comic for 2020.

This finally stopped the promotion of the How To book.

It stayed up a day longer than planed as the fool's comic, 2288: Collector's Edition was first released on Friday, so the note was still up on 2020-04-03.

2020-01-16 - How To explores - again[edit]

2020-01-16.

It was last up on 2020-04-01 when 2287: Pathogen Resistance was on the front page.

2019-12-02 - Into Science[edit]

2019-12-02.

It was last up on 2020-01-15 when 2255: Tattoo Ideas was on the front page.

2019-11-22 - How To explores[edit]

2019-11-22.

It was last up on 2019-12-01 when 2235: Group Chat Rules was on the front page.

2019-11-06 - Audio clip[edit]

2019-11-06.

It was last on the archive on 2019-11-22 when 2231: the Time Before And After Land was on the front page. But it was most likely still up when 2232: Hotel Room Party came out. But then changed during the next day.

2019-10-02 - Horse vs football team[edit]

2019-10-02.

This header changed, but so slightly that the changes will only be mentioned here rather than in a new section:

It ended on 2019-11-05 when 2224: Software Updates was up.

2019-09-30 - Tons of fun[edit]

2019-09-30.

It ended on October 2nd while 2210: College Athletes where up. But there is no archived versions from the 1st of October and the one from the 2nd is with the next version. But the editor of this was making changes to the explanation of College Athletes before the next header change came along.

2019-09-11 - How To available[edit]

2019-09-11.

Up till 2019-09-22 it looked like this.

It ended on 2019-09-29 when 2208: Drone Fishing was up.

2019-09-04 - Happy Release Day - bookstore[edit]

2019-09-04.

Most of the header stayed the same as the day before, but the reference to the Gregorian/Julian calendar was changed.

It ended on 2019-09-09 when 2200: Unreachable State was up.

2019-09-03 - Happy Release Day - calendar[edit]

2019-09-03

2019-08-27 - Out in a week[edit]

2019-08-27.

It ended on the release day 2019-09-03, so this was last on the page on 2019-09-02.

2019-08-06 - Win a sketch[edit]

2019-08-06.

The header stayed like this until 2019-08-26 when 2193: Well-Ordering Principle was up.

2019-08-03 - First look inside[edit]

2019-08-03.

It stayed up like this while the special Disappearing Sunday Update came out on Sunday 2019-08-04, and was there still on Monday [ https://web.archive.org/web/20190805050812/https://www.xkcd.com/ 2019-08-05], at least during the time that the Sudan Update was still up.

2019-07-23 - Back to previous header[edit]

2019-07-23.

It returned to the previous header from before the ComicCon header, see 2019-07-10 It stayed up until 2019-08-02 while 2184: Unpopular Opinions was up. The day after when it changed that comic was still up.

2019-07-15 - ComiCon[edit]

2019-07-15.

Randall tells that he will be at ComicCon and links to his plans there.

It stayed up until 2019-07-22 the day after the ComiCon ended, while 2178: Expiration Date High Score was up.

2019-07-10 - Adding links[edit]

2019-07-10.

Note that the day after this change, 2019-07-11, a link to How To was added to the links in the top left corner of xkcd. The header stayed like this until 2019-07-14 when 2175: Flag Interpretation was up. When it changed the day after 2176: How Hacking Works was up.

2019-07-09 - Drawings from How To[edit]

2019-07-09.

It stayed up like this only for a day, then an extra line of links was added the day after while the same comic was still up, see 2019-07-10.

2019-06-25 - People with books[edit]

2019-06-25.

The header stayed like this until 2019-07-08 when 2172: Lunar Cycles was up. When it changed the day after 2173: Trained a Neural Net was up.

2019-06-15 - Adding dates[edit]

2019-06-15

The header stayed like this until 2019-06-25, when it changed while 2167: Motivated Reasoning Olympics was up. But this one was still up when that comic came out the day before 2019-06-24.

2019-06-11 - Book tour[edit]

2019-06-11

2019-05-17 - Back to previous header[edit]

2019-05-17:

It changed back to the exact same heading as before the one with Google reader here below.

2019-04-23 - Google Reader[edit]

2019-04-23:

2019-02-06 - How to book[edit]

2019-02-06:

2018-11-07 - Back to standard text[edit]

2018-11-07

2018-11-06 - Election Day[edit]

2018-11-06:

2018-11-02 - Where to vote[edit]

2018-11-02:

2018-10-22 - Register for voting[edit]

2018-10-22:

2018-09-13 - NY votes today[edit]

2018-09-13

2017-11-26 - Christmas gifts[edit]

2017-11-26

2017-09-22 - Visiting the UK[edit]

2017-09-22:

2017-07-31 - Thank you[edit]

2017-07-31:

2017-07-25 - Vote against health care bill[edit]

2017-07-25:

2017-01-21 - Update on previous[edit]

2017-01-21:

2016-11-28 - Christmas sale[edit]

2016-11-28

2016-04-23 - Back to standard text[edit]

2016-04-23

2016-04-04 - Protip on Garden[edit]

2016-04-04

2016-04-04 - Back to standard text as Garden came up[edit]

2016-04-04

2016-04-01 - April 1st comic - technical difficulties[edit]

2016-04-01

This was what was needed to stop more than 10 months of promotion of the Thing Explainer book, see below.

2015-12-13 - Thing Explainer is available[edit]

2015-12-13

2015-12-05 - Thing Explainer is available and Next week[edit]

2015-12-05

2015-11-24 - Pages from my new book Thing Explainer[edit]

2015-12-03

2015-11-24 - Thing Explainer is out today[edit]

2015-11-24

2015-10-22 - World Polio Day[edit]

2015-10-22

2015-09-23 - Book trip and tool[edit]

2015-09-23:

2015-09-06 - New links[edit]

2015-09-06:

2015-08-09 - Back to previous header[edit]

2015-08-09:

2015-06-06 - Other news[edit]

2015-06-06

2015-05-15 - Thing Explainer details[edit]

2015-05-15

2015-05-14 - New book Thing Explainer[edit]

2015-05-14

The promotion of the book stayed up with some changes for more than 10 month first stopping when Randall had problems with his April Fool's comic in 2016... It is a record length.

2015-02-11 - Back to standard text[edit]

2015-02-11

2015-02-04 - Valentine cards only[edit]

2015-02-04

2015-02-02 - Last day shirt[edit]

2015-02-02

2015-01-29 - Valentine cards and shirt[edit]

2015-01-29

2015-01-27 - Valentine's Day cards[edit]

2015-01-27

2015-01-24 - Get shirts in store[edit]

2015-01-24

2014-12-22 - Get shirts in store[edit]

2014-12-22

2014-12-19 - Back to previous header[edit]

2014-12-19:

It changed back to the exact same heading as before the one with order now here below.

2014-12-18 - Order now[edit]

2014-12-18

2014-12-17 - Christmas deadline[edit]

2014-12-17

2014-12-03 - Christmas shopping[edit]

2014-12-03

2014-11-29 - Thanks - Emily[edit]

2014-11-29

2014-11-27 - Help Emily[edit]

2014-11-27

2014-10-02 - what if? bestseller[edit]

2014-10-02

2014-09-04 - what if? book out[edit]

2014-09-04

2014-09-02 - what if? book out today[edit]

2014-09-02

2014-07-23 - what if? book tour[edit]

2014-07-23

2014-03-13 - what if? announced[edit]

2014-03-13

2014-01-09 - Back to standard text[edit]

2014-01-09

2013-12-21 - Deadline for Christmas shipping has passed[edit]

2013-12-21

2013-12-06 - Empty header[edit]

2013-12-06

Changes not documented yet 3[edit]

More changes will for sure be here between this and the one below.

Just put the link here with a date and maybe a short note: 2013-12-05: Xmas sale before above 2013-03-15: Empty follows below

2013-03-15 - Empty header[edit]

2013-03-15

2013-03-13 - Comic will be delayed[edit]

2013-03-13

2012-11-26 - xkcd store[edit]

2012-11-26

2012-10-24 - Back to standard text[edit]

2012-10-24

2012-10-17 - New What-If - Lightning[edit]

2012-10-17

2012-10-10 - New What-If - Mariana Trench Explosion[edit]

2012-10-10

2012-10-02 - This week's What-If - Short Answer Section[edit]

2012-10-02

2012-09-26 - New What-If - Laser Pointer[edit]

2012-09-26

2012-09-18 - what-if.xkcd.com - Raindrop[edit]

2012-09-18

Changes not documented yet 2[edit]

The above is the last documented.

Just put the link here with a date and maybe a short note: 2012-09-17: What if Droppings ends. 2012-07-18 Next stores header text

2012-07-10 - New: what-if.xkcd.com[edit]

2012-07-10

2012-04-09 - Standard text plus store link[edit]

2012-04-09

2012-04-05 - Back to standard text[edit]

2012-04-05

2012-03-28 - Visiting Newport News[edit]

2012-03-28

2012-03-12 - xkcd Holistic Browser[edit]

2012-03-12

Changes not documented yet 1[edit]

The above is the last documented.

2012-03-11 Text before. For next entry below...