r n Is If m STYLE MANUAL OF THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE COMPILED UNDER DIRECTION OF THE PUBLIC PRINTER V Revised Edition : October, 1928 WASHINGTON, D. C. / 1928 V PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF GEORGE H. CARTER Public Printer Board on Revision EDWARD A. HUSE HERMANN B. BARNHART MARION E. BULLOCK HARRY B. GOODRELL FRANK W. KIHLBOM Washington, D. C. October, 1928 EXTRACT FROM THE PUBLIC PRINTING LAW OF JANUARY 12, 1895 : : : : : SECTION 51. The forms and style in which the printing or binding ordered by any of the depart- ments shall be executed, and the material and the size of type to be used, shall be determined by the Public Printer, having proper regard to economy, workman- ship, and the purposes for which the work is needed. in STYLE SUMMARY Page Approval by the Joint Committee on Printing and the Permanent Conference on Printing vin Authors and department editors, suggestion to 1 Composition, rules and style of 12 Abbreviations 28 Addresses 40 Authority 13 Bill style 48 Capitalization 13 Guide to capitalization 22 Court of Claims headings for records and briefs 54 Court style 52 Date lines 42 Figures _'_ 31 Follow, follow lit., reprint, etc 49 Foreign governments, table of principal 16 Hearings 45 Introduction - 13 Italic 49 Leader work 39 Miscellaneous 49 Orthography 46 Punctuation 43 Signatures __ 41 Supreme Court headings for transcript of record and for briefs. 55 Tabular work 34 Testimony 45 Compound and noncompound words 165 Compound words, list of 166 Congressional Record style 80 Addresses and signatures 87 Call of the House _ 86 Capitalization .. 8o Caps and small caps, use of 82 Congressional proceedings 90 House 97 Adjournment, recess, and evening session 101 Amendments 101 Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union 98 Conference report and statement 99 House briefs 102 Pension bills 100 Senate _ _ 90 Amendment, third reading, and passage of a bill 92 Bills considered as in Committee of the Whole 94 Confirmations 96 Forms of amendments 93 Injunction of secrecy removed - 95 Nominations 95 Rejection 96 Third reading and passage of a bill 92 Withdrawals 96 Contractions 81 Credits 87 Extracts 88 Figures 81 Forms for speech heads 89 Forms of titles 87 General rules 80 v VI SUMMARY Congressional Record style—Continued. Page Italic 1 gl Miscellaneous _ 81 Pairs 86 Parentheses and brackets . 84 Punctuation 83 Voting by yeas and nays 85 Voting in the House and in Committee of the Whole 84 Congressional Record index style 106 Rules and examples 106 .Semimonthly history of bills 108 Semimonthly index 106 Copy editors, compositors, operators, readers, and revisers, instructions to 5 Composition 6 Editing copy 5 Imposition 8 Making-up 7 Reading and copy holding G Revising 8 Signature marks 11 House Journal index style 122 History of bills in House Journal _. 122 Index in House Journal 122 Journals, House and Senate, style of 109 General rules 109 House 111 History of bills in House Journal index 122 Index in House Journal 122 Instructions for setting votes in House Journal ___ 118 Senate ___ 109 History of bills in Senate Journal index 119 History of bills under names of Senators introducing them 120 Index in Senate Journal 119 Instructions for setting votes in Senate Journal 118 Style of Senate omnibus bills 121 Nominations, reports, documents, and laws 56 Dating proclamations, commissions, and similar Executive documents 77 Executive Calendar 62 Executive Journal extracts 62 General rules for nominations 56 Messages 60 Reports, documents, and laws 63 Samples of laws 77 Samples of nominations 57-60 Withdrawal 60 Railroads, titles of 142 Reports, documents, and laws 63 House documents 65,73,75 Engineer document -'_ 65 Estimates of appropriations 73-77 House reports , 63, 64, 70 Conference report 70 Pension report 64 Senate documents 68. 72 Conference report printed as Senate document 72 Court of Claims document . 68 Senate report — 67 Patents style — 124 Abbreviations 124 Capitalization 125 Compounds 124 Figures 125 Gothics -~,-- 127 Italics and roman 126 Orthography 127 SUMMAEY VII Patents style—Continued. Page Plurals 127 Possessives 126 Punctuation _ 124 Reference letters and figures 126 Samples of headings. „ 130 Terms "radio" and "auto" i 129 States, Territories, and counties, lists of 156 Title-pages, Senate and House hearings 78, 79 Useful information 133 Accented letters frequently used 137 Astronomical signs 134 Average number of words in a line and page and number of ems in a page 138 Chemical elements and symbols 136 Dimensions of type pages and trim of printed books 138 Greek alphabet 137 Increase of text by using leads 138 Length of page 137 Mathematical signs 134 Metric tables 135 Capacity 135 Common measures and their metric equivalents 135 Length 135 Surface 135 Weight.... 135 Miscellaneous tables 133 Names of the months in five languages - 136 Number of words and ems to the square inch 139 Principal and guide meridians and base lines 141 Relative number of ems in a page 138 Roman numerals 136 Standard set measurements 139 United States equivalents of weights and measures used in foreign agricultural statistics 140 Values of foreign coins 133 APPROVED BY THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING Congress of the United States, Joint Committee on Printing, Washington, February 4, 1922. 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, George H. Moses, Chairman. To the Public Printer, Government Printing Office. RESOLUTION OF THE PERMANENT CONFERENCE ON PRINTING The following resolution was unanimously adopted on Janu- ary 11, 1922, by the Permanent Conference on Printing, com- posed of representatives of the various executive departments and independent establishments of the Government, as or- ganized with the approval of the President and the Director of the Bureau of the Budget: RESOLVED, That the Government Printing Office Style Manual as compiled under direction of the Public Printer be approved and adopted as the style to be followed in all Government departments and independ- ent bureaus on and after February 15, 1922. VIII SUGGESTIONS TO AUTHORS AND DEPARTMENT EDITORS Copy should be carefully edited, in accordance with the style laid down in this Style Manual, before being sent to the Government Printing Office ; that is, edit- ing should not be done on proof sheets. This Style Manual is intended to facilitate public printing. If those sub- mitting copy for publication will carefully observe the following suggestions, they will contribute materially toward that end. Copy should be sent flat, numbered consecutively, typewritten if possible, unless reprint, and each page should begin with a paragraph, as the passing of "run downs" is an expensive operation. The Government Printing Office style must be followed in department printing in all cases. Write on one side of the paper only. Duplicate copy of reprint must be fur- nished when possible if both sides are to be used. Authors and departments are requested to send to this office the first sheets of copy, not the carbon copies, for the first sheets are much plainer than the carbons. This is especially requested for copy in foreign languages and copy containing figures. Proper names, foreign words, and technical terms should be written plainly and verified. Illegible signatures and figures should be rewritten. Corrections of figures should not be written over the originals. Manuscript and typewritten copy in a foreign language should be marked accu- rately to show capitalization, punctuation, accents, etc. Abbreviations should not be used unless they are to be printed as written, in which case they should be marked "follow." Answer all queries on proof, as delay and errors often result from neglecting them. All tabulated statements should be written on separate sheets; that is, end the preceding paragraph of text on one sheet, place the table on the next, and com- mence the next paragraph on the following sheet. Reference marks in text and tables should be arranged consecutively across each page. (See table, p. 38.) Photographs, drawings, etc., for illustrations should accompany manuscript, each bearing the name of the publication in which it is to be inserted and the figure number or plate number. The proper place for each illustration should be indicated on the copy by title, legend, or otherwise. If a publication is composed of several parts, a scheme of the desired arrange- ment should accompany the first installment of copy. All corrections should be made on first pi oofs submitted, later proofs being intended for the purpose of verification only. Plate corrections will be made only when absolutely necessary. Requisitions for work containing illustrations should give explicit instructions as to whether or not illustrations are to be furnished by the Government Print- ing Office, giving the number and indicating the process of reproduction. Instruc- tions should be given on the margin of each illustration if reduction is necessary. A publication containing illustrations should be accompained by a letter cer- tifying that the illustrations are necessary and relate entirely to the transaction of public business. (See 33 Stat. L. 1213.) Samples are desirable and should be furnished if possible. They should be plainly marked, showing clearly whether intended for style of type, size of type page, papei, trim, lettering, or binding. : 2 STYLE MANUAL. It is imperative that corrections should be marked on the margins of a proof sheet opposite the indicated errors. Do not attempt to make a correction by writing over the print or between the lines. Errors marked in this way are in danger of being overlooked and are generally illegible. Proofs read by authors or department readers should be marked to conform to the following style 0 Period.