Printing-houses that pretend to turn out careful work, such as publishing books and periodicals, should follow some model of unquestioned authority; but as proper exemplars are not often at hand, the daily newspaper, being omnipresent, is taken for a pattern.
The purpose of this handbook is to furnish a guide based on the scholarship and technical knowledge of some of the world’s greatest authors and printers. As blunders and inconsistencies creep into print everywhere, even when special care is taken to avoid them, the author expects this very work to be an example of the mistakes it warns others to avoid. Such shortcomings as here appear, however, should serve to emphasize the need of great pains by all who write and print.
Some years ago it fell to the author to harmonize the style-codes of three printing-houses that were doing work for him. In seeking a model of accuracy and typographical neatness the system expounded by Theodore Low De Vinne, used by the Century Magazine and the Century Company, was chosen.
It was discovered that there never has been any formal style-code in use by the De Vinne-Century printers. They have learned the style by studying De Vinne’s Correct Composition and like works of his on typography. Office experience teaches printers the written and unwritten laws of the De Vinne code.
The method of the Century printers has been largely the method of the author of this manual. By correspondence with Mr. De Vinne, by studying his books, and by the practical application of his rules to the work of many offices the writer has come to know his methods, which are believed to be the simplest and most scholarly in use in the United States to-day. More than eighty per cent of the rules herein expounded are codified from the works of De Vinne, or gleaned from Teall and similar sources of indisputable authority. The work of the Chicago Proofreaders’ Association has been found helpful in the compounding of words.
System is as necessary in a printing-house as in a bank, and classification and obedience to the law of the office are absolutely essential to the production of correct composition. Since many editors and patrons, authors and others are usually either careless or untrained in the art of preparing copy, the printer must be extremely painstaking and methodic, or his work will be censured, and he will be blamed for every fault that shows itself in ‘cold type.’ The owners of newspapers printed at other men’s offices are especially unreasonable when mistakes occur. No matter how careless such customers are with their work, they expect the printer to be infallible. Every publisher of wide experience will corroborate this statement. The skilful writer expects reasonable accuracy, the ignoramus wants printers to be Macaulays and mind-readers as well.
[2.] Why Style-codes are Necessary. Style-codes are necessary because much of the copy that is presented to printers is neither written nor edited with reference to accuracy, consistency, or the rules of orderly typography. Indeed much copy is not edited at all; it reaches the case or the machine with its original crudities thick upon it, and if blunders are discovered by the public the slovenly authors defend themselves by charging them to ‘errors of the types,’ or blunders of the printers. On account of the general carelessness of writers, style-codes are necessary; they enable printers and proofreaders to hold writers within reasonable bounds. If all things were written just as they should be printed, style-codes would be useless.
[3.] Edited Manuscripts Save Money. Just as short words and short, simple sentences save the time and energy required to gather the meaning that would be clouded by the use of long, involved sentences, so clearly written and accurately prepared manuscripts save time, energy, and money in the printing-office.
Typewritten copy is almost a necessity in this busy age, but whether penned or typed, manuscripts should be consistent in style, and above all readily legible. Fast typesetting machines should not be made slow and expensive by the carelessness and indistinct manuscripts of editors and other writers for the press.
[4.] Uniformity is Essential to Success. Uniformity in the method of using capital letters, compound words, punctuation marks, etc., is essential where any care is taken with printed matter. It is astonishing that many editors, reporters, ministers, lawyers, and others who write for publication are not only ignorant of typographical niceties, but of fundamentals as well. Going further, it may be said that many printing-houses are conducted in a haphazard way, as if uniformity and accuracy were luxuries beyond price. Even under the best system, contradictions and other errors are certain to abound. The best that can be expected is to reduce blunders to the minimum.