List of proofreader's marks

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This article is a list of standard proofreader's marks used to indicate and correct problems in a text. Marks come in two varieties, abbreviations and abstract symbols. These are usually handwritten on the paper containing the text. Symbols are interleaved in the text, while abbreviations may be placed in a margin with an arrow pointing to the problematic text. Different languages use different proofreading marks and sometimes publishers have their own in-house proofreading marks. [1]

Contents

Abbreviations

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AbbreviationMeaningUse
spSpellingUsed to indicate misspelling
spoSpell outUsed to indicate that an abbreviation should be spelled out, such as in its first use
stetLet it standIndicates that proofreading marks should be ignored and the copy unchanged
flFlush leftAlign text flush with left margin
frFlush rightAlign text flush with right margin
eq #Equalize spacing
lsLetterspaceAdjust letterspacing
italItalicsPut in italics
romRomanPut in Roman (non-italic) font
bfBoldfacePut in boldface
lcLower casePut text in lower case
capsCapitalizePut text in capital case
scSmall capsPut text in small caps
wfWrong fontPut text in correct font
wc/wwword choice/wrong wordIncorrect or awkward word choice
hr #Insert hair space
s/bshould beSelection should be whatever edit follows this mark
s/rsubstitute/replaceMake the substitution
trtransposeTranspose the two words selected

Symbols

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Symbol NameSymbol(s)MeaningExample of Use
Dele [lower-alpha 1]

Delete
Pilcrow (Unicode U+00B6)Begin new paragraph
Pilcrow (Unicode U+00B6)¶ noRemove paragraph break
Caret [lower-alpha 2] (Unicode U+2038, 2041, 2380)‸ ⁁ ⎀Insert
#Insert space
Close up (Unicode U+2050)Tie words together, eliminating a spaceI was reading the news⁐paper this morning.
] [Center text
]Move text right
[Move text left
Insert em dash
Insert en dash

Manuscripts

Depending on local conventions, underscores (underlines) may be used on manuscripts (and historically on typescripts) to indicate the special typefaces to be used: [2] [3]

See also

Notes

  1. For more details, see Eduardo Marín Silva (4 October 2021). "Proposal for the inclusion of the DELETE SIGN for proofreading and discussion of the intended use and behavior of already encoded signs" (PDF). Unicode Consortium.
  2. The circumflex character ^ and latin letter v are sometimes shown but these are not correct.

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Blackboard bold is a style of writing bold symbols on a blackboard by doubling certain strokes, commonly used in mathematical lectures, and the derived style of typeface used in printed mathematical texts. The style is most commonly used to represent the number sets , (integers), , , and .

The symbol # is known variously in English-speaking regions as the number sign, hash, or pound sign. The symbol has historically been used for a wide range of purposes including the designation of an ordinal number and as a ligatured abbreviation for pounds avoirdupois – having been derived from the now-rare .

In English writing, quotation marks or inverted commas, also known informally as quotes, talking marks, speech marks, quote marks, quotemarks or speechmarks, are punctuation marks placed on either side of a word or phrase in order to identify it as a quotation, direct speech or a literal title or name. Quotation marks may be used to indicate that the meaning of the word or phrase they surround should be taken to be different from that typically associated with it, and are often used in this way to express irony. They are also sometimes used to emphasise a word or phrase, although this is usually considered incorrect.

The slash is the oblique slanting line punctuation mark /. It is also known as a stroke, a solidus, a forward slash or several other historical or technical names including oblique and virgule. Once used to mark periods and commas, the slash is now used to represent division and fractions, exclusive 'or' and inclusive 'or', and as a date separator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emphasis (typography)</span> Typographical distinction

In typography, emphasis is the strengthening of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text, to highlight them. It is the equivalent of prosody stress in speech.

Proofreading is an iterative process of comparing galley proofs against the original manuscripts or graphic artworks to identify transcription errors in the typesetting process. In the past, proofreaders would place corrections or proofreading marks along the margins. In modern publishing, material is generally provided in electronic form, traditional typesetting is no longer used and thus this kind of transcription no longer occurs. Consequently the part played by pure proofreaders in the process has almost vanished: the role has been absorbed into copy editing to such an extent that their names have become interchangeable. Modern copy-editors may check layout alongside their traditional checks on grammar, punctuation and readability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italic type</span> Font style characterised by cursive typeface and slanted design

In typography, italic type is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Along with blackletter and roman type, it served as one of the major typefaces in the history of Western typography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copy editing</span> Improving the formatting, style, and accuracy of text

Copy editing is the process of revising written material (copy) to improve readability and fitness, as well as ensuring that a text is free of grammatical and factual errors. The Chicago Manual of Style states that manuscript editing encompasses "simple mechanical corrections through sentence-level interventions to substantial remedial work on literary style and clarity, disorganized passages, baggy prose, muddled tables and figures, and the like ". In the context of print publication, copy editing is done before typesetting and again before proofreading. Outside traditional book and journal publishing, the term "copy editing" is used more broadly, and is sometimes referred to as proofreading; the term sometimes encompasses additional tasks.

An underscore or underline is a line drawn under a segment of text. In proofreading, underscoring is a convention that says "set this text in italic type", traditionally used on manuscript or typescript as an instruction to the printer. Its use to add emphasis in modern finished documents is generally avoided.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Small caps</span> Lowercase characters that resemble uppercase letters except smaller in height

In typography, small caps are characters typeset with glyphs that resemble uppercase letters (capitals) but reduced in height and weight close to the surrounding lowercase letters or text figures. This is technically not a case-transformation, but a substitution of glyphs, although the effect is often approximated by case-transformation and scaling. Small caps are used in running text as a form of emphasis that is less dominant than all uppercase text, and as a method of emphasis or distinctiveness for text alongside or instead of italics, or when boldface is inappropriate. For example, the text "Text in small caps" appears as Text in small caps in small caps. Small caps can be used to draw attention to the opening phrase or line of a new section of text, or to provide an additional style in a dictionary entry where many parts must be typographically differentiated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Font</span> Particular size, weight and style of a typeface

In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece for each glyph. A typeface consists of various fonts that share an overall design.

In computer language design, stropping is a method of explicitly marking letter sequences as having a special property, such as being a keyword, or a certain type of variable or storage location, and thus inhabiting a different namespace from ordinary names ("identifiers"), in order to avoid clashes. Stropping is not used in most modern languages – instead, keywords are reserved words and cannot be used as identifiers. Stropping allows the same letter sequence to be used both as a keyword and as an identifier, and simplifies parsing in that case – for example allowing a variable named if without clashing with the keyword if.

Sentence spacing concerns how spaces are inserted between sentences in typeset text and is a matter of typographical convention. Since the introduction of movable-type printing in Europe, various sentence spacing conventions have been used in languages with a Latin alphabet. These include a normal word space, a single enlarged space, and two full spaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galley proof</span> First proofs printed from type, usually before breaking into pages

In printing and publishing, proofs are the preliminary versions of publications meant for review by authors, editors, and proofreaders, often with extra-wide margins. Galley proofs may be uncut and unbound, or in some cases electronically transmitted. They are created for proofreading and copyediting purposes, but may also be used for promotional and review purposes.

ISO 5776, published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), is an international standard that specifies symbols for proofreading such as of manuscripts, typescripts and printer's proofs. The total number of symbols specified is 16, each in English, French and Russian.

PostScript fonts are font files encoded in outline font specifications developed by Adobe Systems for professional digital typesetting. This system uses PostScript file format to encode font information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subscript and superscript</span> A character set slightly below and above the normal line of type, respectively

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Chinese punctuation has punctuation marks that are derived from both Chinese and Western sources. Although there was a long native tradition of textual annotation to indicate the boundaries of sentences and clauses, the concept of punctuation marks being a mandatory and integral part of the text was only adapted in the written language during the 20th century due to Western influence.

Modern versions of the Chinese language have two kinds of punctuation marks for indicating proper nouns – the proper name mark / proper noun mark and the book title marks / title marks. The former may be applied to all proper nouns except when the nouns in question are titles of textual or artistic works, in which case the latter are used instead. The book title marks come in different forms while the proper name mark does not – given that their rotated forms are not counted separately.

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English Braille, also known as Grade 2 Braille, is the braille alphabet used for English. It consists of around 250 letters (phonograms), numerals, punctuation, formatting marks, contractions, and abbreviations (logograms). Some English Braille letters, such as ⟨ch⟩, correspond to more than one letter in print.

References

  1. "Proof Correction Marks" (PDF). British Standards Institution. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 December 2017. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
  2. "Proofreading Marks Chart  Some of the Most Common Proofreading Marks". graphic-design-employment.com. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  3. Writers' & Artists' Yearbook 2020. Bloomsbury. 5 September 2019. ISBN   9781472947512.
  1. "6. Typographic instructions and revision of the text". Interinstitutional style guide. Publications Office of the European Union.
  2. "6.3. Proof-correction marks". Interinstitutional style guide.