Soliciting pinions on text formatting

Hi, all. I'm butting heads with some non-designers in the government agency I work for regarding proper text formatting and was wondering what some of my peers think about it. The issues of contention ...

1 - Justification

I laid out my brochure with my columns fully justified to create nice, sharp margins on either side. I think this looks neater and makes the entire layout look sharp. I was asked by the "clear Language" folks to left justify everything, which will obviously make my right margins jagged and uneven. This goes against my experience and inclination, and apparently against the standards of most magazines, books and professional publications I've looked to for comparisons. Am I wrong to make a fuss about this? What say you?

2 - Capitalization

These folks like to break any cohesive sentence into as many bullets and sub-bullets as possible, which is already counter-intuitive to me. These "paragraphs" usually begin by ending the first half of a sentence with a colon and then listing alternate second halves as bullets, which they insist should be capitalized. A typical situation would look like this ...

When a poor design decision is foisted upon a designer, the designer could:
- Calmly acquiesce and bite his tongue.
- Throw a total fit and storm out of the office.
- Blow his brains out with
- A potato gun.
- A howitzer.
- A super soaker.

My feeling is that these bullets are not sentences unto themselves and thus should not be capitalized. Am I wrong to think that this is incorrect?

Lukabrazzi,

I'm butting heads with some non-designers in the government agency I work
for




My condolences! :-)

Justification: If your columns are narrow, then FLRR would be what I'd recommend over FL&R, to avoid bad word or letter spacing. We've all seen that typographic disaster happen in newspaper columns. I'd reserve it for two column formats, but not for three on a letter-size page. With FLRR, you can also manually "work" the right margin so that you have a nice rag and keep your typesetting even in color.

Capitalization: If you are presenting an outline/slide show/Powerpoint presentation, bulletpoints or other list, the outline format makes sense -- and I can see it either way: with initial caps or without (although without is probably more "correct").

But if you can't stick to plain running text for the bulk of the brochure, the outline format is going to be deadly to read. I don't "know" what the rules are, but in your example, I would probably go for initial lowercase letters. But, then, I've seen this both ways -- but it has to be consistent.

BTW, the "super soaker" is probably easier on the cranium.

Not sure how much this has helped!

Neil

Thanks for your input, Neil. Would I sound like a complete hack if I asked what FLRR or FL&R stand for? My guess was "Full Left & Right", but then the last "R" stumped me!

The columns aren't too narrow and I've adjusted the kerning by eye in places where the spacing went awry. The whole thing looks very nice when fully justified and I think I'm being asked to left justify everything simply because the guy has it in his head that it's "correct". Ugh.

Lukabrazzi,

Gotta learn it some time; may as well be now. <g>

FLRR = flush left, ragged right
FL&R = flush left and right

I'm being asked to left justify everything simply because the guy has
it in his head that it's "correct".




A little bit of knowledge is dangerous in the wrong hands. But he's not well informed -- one cannot make a blanket statement without understanding about what is correct or incorrect typography without examining the specific circumstances and page environment which include factors such as:

page layout/type position
other graphic elements
length of text
density of text on page
margins and gutters
column width
language/word lengths
formal/informal nature of text
font(s)
font size
leading
paragraph separation
color of type
type contrast
readability
conventions for text of this nature
etc.

And you can tell him that I said so.

Neil

Flush left setting, as requested, is actually preferred by many designers. As Neil says, it is required with short measures, but even when the lines are long, flush left, ragged right can be nicer. It provides a consistent space within sentences, and the space at the right that you don't like can actually make a work look airier.

As for the capitalization rules on bullets (which do have a higher readability than full sentences), check various style guides, and you should find one that follows what you are saying. That gives you ammunition to your argument.

I believe most guides will want:

When a poor design decision is foisted upon a designer, the designer could:
- calmly acquiesce and bite his tongue,
- throw a total fit and storm out of the office, or
- blow his brains out with
- a potato gun,
- a howitzer, or
- a super soaker.

Note how the line endings are changed, and now the bullets read as a correct sentence, if you ignore the bulletting. There is a style closer to what you gave, where the initial stub, and each ending produce a separate sentence. However, I believe in those cases you do not use a period at the end. (One sentence starting capital per period).

An argument you can use against what you have shown is that:

- A potato gun.

is not a complete sentence (no verb) and therefore should not be formatted as one.

....and Don knows from potato guns! He was a terror on his block. :-)

Good to see you here, Don. It's been awhile!

Neil