Re: Typemarking

Subject: Re: Typemarking
From: Dick Margulis <margulis -at- fiam -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2003 15:02:24 -0400


Carol,

Bill's response is partially accurate. However, I think what you are looking for
is the following definition I found on Prentice-Hall's site:

"In addition to being copyedited, your manuscript may also be typemarked. Either
the copy editor or the production editor marks each element in the manuscript
with an identifying letter or number so that the compositor will have explicit
instructions on all typographical details."

In practice, this is how it works:

The book designer (usually a freelance but sometimes a full-time staffer)
develops a set of excruciatingly detailed specifications for all the typographic
controls that a compositor cares about. Each specification corresponds to a
style in a typesetting program (similar to a paragraph style or character style
in Word), and includes information about font, size, indents, spacing, etc. It
is the compositor's responsibility to encode these specifications into the
typesetting program so that they can be invoked automatically when called for.

The copyeditor takes a pen and marks next to each of the designer's
specifications an abbreviation in a circle (H1 for heading 1, H2 for heading 2,
BL1 for first-level bulleted list, etc.). A copy of this marked up style sheet
goes to the compositor so everyone is using the same abbreviations.

The copyeditor then marks up the manuscript, putting a circled H1 next to all of
the heading 1s, etc.

All of this presupposes a typescript. That is, when authors used typewriters or
simple word processors to prepare their manuscripts, there was only one font and
everything looked the same. So only the copyeditor's markup distinguished a
heading from a text paragraph.

Nowadays, authors tend to use Word and so they generally try to indicate styles
(however badly) through the use of bold, italic, all caps, etc. The copyeditor
still needs to determine what the style should _really_ be for each element. And
whether the copyeditor does this with a pen or by applying styles in the file is
up to the publisher, I suppose.

So typemarking is really just specifying which styles apply where. It does not
so much involve specifying typesetting parameters.

Dick



Bill Darnall wrote:

>
>
> Typemarking is what one does to a manuscript to show the exact typeface,
> type size, and spacing. It is not something that a proofreader or copyeditor
> defines. Publications have standards for style. These standards usually
> include specifications for typography. Given the typographic standard, a
> proofreader enters the appropriate "marks." If you were proofing a magazine
> and noticed a heading had been incorrectly set in the "wrong" typeface, you
> would indicate the correct typeface. Of course, you would have to know the
> magazine's standards. If you were proofreading a typed manuscript with no
> indicated typefaces, you would refer to an editor's page design
> specification and mark the manuscript accordingly.
>

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Follow-Ups:

References:
RE: Typemarking: From: Bill Darnall

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