UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE STYLE MANUAL (ABRIDGED) REVISED EDITION JANUARY 1945 APPROVED BY THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING + Congress of the United States, Joint Committee on Printing, Washington, November 29> 7944. Dear Sir: Receipt is acknowledged of the proof pages of the Government Printing Office Style Manual for inspection and approval. The Style Manual as compiled and submitted is approved by the Joint Committee on Printing. Respectfully, Carl Hayden, Chairman. To the Public Printer, Government Printing Office. UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE STYLE MANUAL (ABRIDGED) ISSUED BY THE PUBLIC PRINTER UNDER AUTHORITY OF SECTION 51 OF AN ACT OF CONGRESS APPROVED JANUARY 12, 1895 REVISED EDITION JANUARY 1945 WASHINGTON : 1945 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office "Washington 25, D. C. - Price 50 cents UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE STYLE BOARD JOSEPH H. PHILLIPS, Chairman ' JAMES R. BEAUBIAH GEORGE R. RANOW FRED W. H. BRANDT Ex Officid WILLIAM SMITH Production Manager JAMES W. BRODERICK Assistant Production Manager MORRIS H. REAVES Superintendent of Composition + UNDER DIRECTION OF THE PUBLIC PRINTER AUGUSTUS E. GIEGENGACK EDITION OF NOVEMBER 193S REVISED JANUARY 1939 AND JANUARY 1945 SECOND PRINTING, APRIL 1947 THIRD PRINTING, NOVEMBER 1947 CONTENTS Page Suggestions to authors and editors 1 General instructions 5 Capitalization 15 Guide to capitalization 25 Spelling 47 Compound words 57 ( Guide to compounding 61 Abbreviations 93 Numerals * 103 Signs and symbols 107 Punctuation 111 Tabular work 123 Leader work 135 Date lines, addresses, and signatures 139 Italic 145 Fol., fol. lit., etc 147 Court work 149 Miscellaneous 157 General information 163 Plant names 179 Counties 185 Index 195 in SUGGESTIONS TO AUTHORS AND EDITORS This Style Manual is intended to facilitate Government printing. Careful observation of the following suggestions will aid materially in expediting publication and reducing printing expenditures, Copy must be carefully edited in accordance with the style here laid down before being sent to the Government Printing Office. Changes on proof sheets add greatly to the expense and delay the work. Legible copy, not faint carbon copies, must be furnished. This is most essential for copy in foreign languages and copy containing figures. Copy should be sent flat, with the sheets numbered consecutively, and typewritten, if possible, on one side of the paper only. If both sides of reprint copy are to be used, a duplicate must be furnished if available. To avoid mutilation of copy, each page should begin with a paragraph. Tabular matter should be written on sheets separate from the text, as it is handled separately during composition. Proper names, signatures, figures, foreign words, and technical terms should be written plainly and verified. Manuscript and typewritten copy in a foreign language should be marked accurately to show capitalization, punctuation, accents, etc. Reference marks in text and tables should be arranged consecu- tively from left to right across each page. Photographs, drawings, etc., for illustrations should accompany the manuscript, each bearing the name of the publication in which it is to be inserted and the figure or plate number. The proper place for each text figure should be indicated on the copy by inserting its number and title. A requisition for work containing illustrations must be accom- panied by a letter certifying that the illustrations are necessary and relate entirely to the transaction of public business (U. S. C, title 44, eec. 118). The total number of illustrations and the processes of repro- duction desired should also be indicated. Instructions should be given on the margin of each illustration if enlargement or reduction is necessary. If a publication is composed of several parts, a scheme of the de- sired arrangement must accompany the first installment of the copy. Samples should be furnished if possible. They should be plainly marked, showing whether they illustrate the desired type, size of type page, paper, trim, lettering, or binding; but they will not be considered as style for composition if they conflict with the rules in this Style Manual. All corrections should be made on first proofs submitted, as later proofs are intended for verification only. All corrections must be indicated on the "R" set of proofs, and only that set should be returned to the Government Printing Office. 1 : 2 SUGGESTIONS TO AUTHORS AND EDITORS Corrections should be marked on the margins of a proof sheet opposite the indicated errors, not by writing over the print or between the lines. All queries on proofs must be answered. Corrections in proofs read by authors or department readers must be indicated as follows 0 Period J Comma b Hyphen % Colon J Semicolon yg, Apostrophe *$¥/y£> Quotations / £7 Em quadrat Zrfi One-em dash Jgt>_ >yrv Two-em parallel dash Push down space O Close up 1 l/ Less space /\ Caret—left out, insert ^) Turn to proper position Insert space ZT or 17 Move to left or to right /~7 or l—J Move up or move down /fat Transpose nr s&CaPfc Let it stand c£ Dele—take out ^> Broken letter Paragraph No paragraph yccn^Lr Wrong font Equalize spacing or &ffijr Capitals fc= or Qj*-fiAs> b= or Small capitals ^ Lower case ^S^or "^l Superior or inferior _or Italic /L&7YU. Roman £7J Brackets J Parentheses J j SUGGESTIONS TO AUTHORS AND EDITORS TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS 6. C K^oe^ not appear that the earli/st printers had 6 ^/[ y/ an^methGd^f^orrecting^errors*' before^the form ,7 ©/was on the press/ The learned •Tke-iearaed* cor- ^ L rectors of the first two centuries of printing were / <~\ notproofreaders in our sense/ they wrere rather 3/^7 *jf what we should ][erm office editors. I Their labors / wereAchiefly to see that the proof corresponded to the copy, but that the printed page was correct in its /atinity/-4b^^g^c^^wefg'- thgre^ and that the sense was right. They cared 4«rt little. c% about orthography, bad lefctersAor purely printer^ errors, and when the text seemed to them wrong / they consulted fresh authorities or altered it on their own responsibility. Good proofsAin the &V6£tf modern sense, were ^{possiBle until professional readers were employed/ men who [had first] a 0 printer's education, and then spent many years 4? proof. in the correctj6n of The orthography ofj » English, which for the past century has underA ,*/ gon e little change, was very fluctuating until after " JEH the publication of Johnson's Dictionary, and capi- tals, which have been used with considerable reg- ^cfyj&ajeL, lilarity for the past^ years, were previously used [mis£|or\hi^ plan. ^/^- on the . The approach toregu* /Ot larity, io far as we have^ may be attributed to the growth of a class of professional proofreaders, and it is to them that we owe the correctness of mod* ern printing.^ More er/ors have been found in the Bible than in any other one work. For many Z^-^-J^aueC erations it was frequently the case that Bibles* were brought out stealthily, from fear of govern- or fjmental interference. /\ They were frequently OwtjStoCtfy* printed from imperfect texts, and were often mod- • 0 ified to meet the views of those who publised ^ D them.The story is related that a certain woman / p in Germany, who was the wife of a printer, aad *ka(* become disgusted with the continual asser- / t^f d f £7y> A#7Tl* tion^ of th elsuperiority) oi man over woman which / U I she had heard, hurried into the composing room ^ while her husband_ was at supper and altered a\ *S 0 v u ^sentence in the ^ible^hicfyhe was^rinting, so «/ *f# •f jf' tnat i fc read^ar^instead ofAHerr,Athus making fyht/ / \L the verse read "And he shall be thy fool" instead // / /0V, of "^nd he shall be thy/ord." The word^not^ ^/i^/ty ~ c7[ was omitted by Barker, the Ring's printer in En- // land inl632,inprintingtheseventh command[caentA Or He was fined <£(koOO on this account. ^^^z^X \ GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS PREPARING COPY The first duty of copy preparers is to mark those things which are not readily understood and to indicate headings, indentions, dashes, new pages, new odd pages, and such other matters as are necessary to give the completed book a good typographic appearance. They must indicate point size and type series on copy, and whether matter is to be" leaded or double-leaded, etc.; verify folio numbers; and plainly indicate references, footnotes, cut-ins, etc. Unless otherwise marked: (1) Text matter will be set in 10-point solid and tables in 6-point solid; (2) 9-unit figures will be used in tables when bold face is requested; (3) 2-point (hair line) rules will be used in tables. Quoted matter should be set 2 points smaller than text, and quota- tion marks at beginning and end of paragraphs should be omitted. If the same size type is used, quoted matter should be cut in 1 to 3 ems, depending on measure, and initial and closing quotes should be omitted. It is not necessary to mark again anything that has been plainly indicated at the beginning of a sheet, as the preparation is to be followed if the same thing should appear more than once on the sheet; but on copy ,} u marked "Fol.," "Fol. incl. caps, or Fol. lit." the preparation must be carried throughout. Copy that is ordered to be kept clean and returned intact must be marked as lightly as possible, so that erasures may be easily made. Copy preparer's instructions, which accompany each job, are written to cover the general style and certain peculiarities or deviations from style. These instructions must be followed.