[U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual]
[About this manual]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


 
                           ABOUT THIS MANUAL

    By act of Congress the Public Printer is authorized to 
determine the form and style of Government printing. The Style 
Manual is the product of many years of public printing 
experience, and its rules are based on principles of good usage 
and custom in the printing trade.
    Editors and writers whose disciplines have taught them 
aspects of style different from rules followed in this Manual 
will appreciate the difficulty of establishing a single 
standard. The Style Manual has served Federal printers since 
1894, and with this 29th edition, the traditions of printing 
and graphic arts are carried forward into new technologies.
    Essentially, it is a standardization device designed to 
achieve uniform word and type treatment, and aiming for economy 
of word use. Such rules as are laid down for the submission of 
copy to the GPO point to the most economical manner for the 
preparation and typesetting of manuscript. Following such rules 
eliminates additional chargeable processing by the GPO.
    It should be remembered that the Manual is primarily a GPO 
printer's stylebook. Easy rules of grammar cannot be 
prescribed, for it is assumed that editors are versed in 
correct expression. As a printer's book, it necessarily uses 
terms that are obvious to those skilled in the graphic arts. A 
glossary of such printing terms to be complete would 
unnecessarily burden the Manual.
    Its rules cannot be regarded as rigid, for the printed word 
assumes many shapes and variations in type presentation. An 
effort has been made to provide complete coverage of those 
elements that enter into the translation of manuscript into 
type.
    Comments and suggestions from users of the Style Manual are 
invited. All such correspondence should be addressed as 
follows:

                            GPO Style Board
                             Mail Stop PDE
                    U.S. Government Printing Office
                      732 North Capitol Street, NW.
                         Washington, DC  20401

                    E-mail address: [email protected]

    For the purposes of this Manual, printed examples 
throughout are to be considered the same as the printed rules.

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