This law determines the main principles of the publishing business, regulates the procedures of organization and implementation of the publishing process, distribution, relationships among business entities in the field, and their operation.

In accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine (254k/96-VR), this Law is geared to assist in the national and cultural development of the Ukrainian people, citizens of Ukraine of all nationalities, asserting their spiritual and moral values, ensuring each and every communal member an access to the universal human treasure-trove, protecting the rights and interests of authors, publishers, manufacturers, distributors, and consumers of printed matter.

Publishing shall be understood as a social domain in which organizational, creative, production, and business efforts of entities and individuals are combined in producing, manu-facturing, and distributing printed matter.

The following shall be considered the components of publishing:

• Publishing activities as the sum total of organizational, creative, and production efforts aimed at the preparation and release of printed matter;
• Manufacture of printed matter as a production process resulting in the release of a certain number of copies of a certain original manuscript, made using typographic or other techniques;
• Distribution of printed matter as conveying printed matter to consumers through retail outlets or otherwise.

Publishing shall be aimed at:

• Satisfying the need of individuals, society, and the state in printed matter, and at receiving attendant revenues;
• Providing opportunities for citizens' self-expression as authors, regardless of race, color, political, religious or other persuasions, sex, ethnic or social belonging, property status, place of residence, language or other characteristics;
• Securing the right to freedom of thought, expression, and convictions;
• Assisting the national-cultural growth of the Ukrainian people by increasing the overall circulation of printed matter and expanding the range of subjects covered by Ukrainian book-printing;
• Securing Ukrainian society an access to the world cultural treasure-trove by translating into the official language the world's best literary, scientific, and other works, while establishing and developing contacts with foreign publishing houses, ethnic Ukrainian communities, and signing appropriate international agreements;
• Printing books in Russian to satisfy cultural needs of Ukraine's Russian-speaking residents, with due regard to imported printed matter;
• Printing books in languages spoken by other ethnic minorities in Ukraine;
• Increasing the number of foreign language editions meant to disseminate information about Ukraine on the world arena;

The national policy in the publishing domain shall be aimed at supporting the development of national book-printing, increasing the supply of Ukrainian language editions to the market, replenishing [public] library stocks, providing publications in the official language to educational institutions and research centers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations, law enforcement agencies, enterprises, institutions, and organizations.

In terms of support of the cultures of ethnic minorities, the national policy in the publishing domain shall be carried out via corresponding executive authorities, jointly with ethnic cultural associations.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine shall implement the national policy in the publishing domain, supervising and coordinating the efforts of ministries and other executive authorities in this sphere.

The national policy in the publishing domain may be concretized and adjusted in the laws of Ukraine, relying on studies of the publishing market, needs analysis, and of market supply and demand, proceeding from official publishing statistics.

The state shall assign priority to socially important editions put out as per national thematic programs and government contracts, so as to facilitate the operation of legislative, executive, judiciary, and health authorities, also research, educational, cultural institutions, and social protection establishments.

The state shall support publishing houses, publishing organizations, print shops, and book-selling enterprises putting out or distributing at least 50% of their products in the official language, along with small-circulation (up to 5,000) editions in languages used by numerically insignificant ethnic minorities. Said support shall be in the form of tax and duty exemptions, and shall apply also to printed matter made in and exported from Ukraine, and vice versa, provided such editions are in Ukrainian and in languages spoken by numerically insignificant ethnic minorities residing in Ukraine.

Languages in the publishing domain shall be used in keeping with Article 10, Constitution of Ukraine, Law of Ukraine On Languages in Ukraine (8312-11), and other legislative acts of Ukraine.

All printed matter meant for official and consumer use (e.g., blanks, receipts, tickets, certificates, diplomas, etc.) and distributed via government-run enterprises, institutions, and organizations shall be in the official language.

The state shall encourage the preparation, production, and dissemination of printed matter in the official language and those spoken by ethnic minorities inhabiting Ukraine.

The implementation of the national lingual policy in the publishing domain shall be secured by relevant organs of executive authority.

Each such application shall indicate:

• Languages to be used in print (official, Russian, other languages used by Ukraine's ethnic minorities, foreign languages - to be specified);

The following persons shall be regarded as customers entitled to order any type of printed matter:

• Citizens of Ukraine, foreign subjects, and stateless persons staying in Ukraine on lawful grounds, as well as legal entities of Ukraine and other countries.

Each customer shall determine the language, size, and print run of his/their order, and shall use or distribute such printed matter at his/their own discretion.

Output data shall be understood as information describing the given edition, meant for its registration, [also as] information for the consumer, and for bibliographic and statistical processing.

All books published in Ukraine, regardless of the language used in the body of the text, shall under all conditions have annotations and output data in the official language. The only exception may be editions in foreign languages meant to be circulated abroad or among foreign-speaking audiences.