Main Content

Typesetting Standards

These standards will be followed unless clients request otherwise.

  • Straight quotation marks converted to typographer’s quotes
  • One space following a period
  • Punctuation set roman or italic to match the main text
  • Thin spaces before and after em dashes, depending on font; dash may fall at end or beginning of line
  • Number ranges separated by en dashes
  • Ellipses formed by three spaced periods; may fall at end or beginning of line
  • Hyphenation: maximum two hyphens in a row, one hyphen per word, compound words broken at their natural division, at least two letters before hyphen and three letters after; whenever possible, proper nouns or last word of paragraph or page won’t be hyphenated
  • Widows and orphans: at least two lines at top of page or column; one line permitted at bottom of page or column
  • Facing pages to have matching depths (same bottom margin) unless a variable page depth is part of the design
  • Page spreads may be shortened up to two lines to allow better fitting across a chapter
  • Last page of a chapter to have at least four lines
  • Subheads near beginning or end of page to be preceded or followed by at least two lines
  • Pages without text to be unnumbered and without running head
  • Page numbering: front matter in roman numerals; arabic numerals to begin with introduction or chapter 1
  • Nonfiction: chapters to begin on a right-hand page (recto)
  • Fiction: chapters to begin on next new page (recto or verso); chapters may begin on same page if page count is an issue
  • Nonfiction and fiction: major parts to begin on right-hand page (recto)