UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT

PRINTING OFFICE

STYLE MANUAL

ISSUED BY THE PUBLIC PRINTER

UNDER AUTHORITY OF SECTION 51 OF AN ACT
OF CONGRESS APPROVED JANUARY 12, 1895

REVISED EDITION

JANUARY 1959

Second printing-December 1959
Third printing-December 1961

WASHINGTON: 1959

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington 25, D.C. Price $2.75, Buckram; Abridged, $1.25

The Library of Congress has cataloged this STYLE MANUAL as follows:

U.S. Government Printing Office.

Style manual. Rev. ed. Washington, 1959.

viii, 496 p. 24 cm.

1. Printing, Practical-Style manuals. 2. Authorship-Handbooks, manuals, etc. 1. Title.

Z253.U58 1959

Library of Congress

655.25

59-60008

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EXTRACT FROM THE

PUBLIC PRINTING LAW

OF JANUARY 12, 1895

SECTION 51. THE FORMS AND STYLE IN
WHICH THE PRINTING OR BINDING

ORDERED BY ANY OF THE DEPARTMENTS

SHALL BE EXECUTED, AND THE MATE-
RIAL AND THE SIZE OF TYPE TO BE USED,
SHALL BE DETERMINED BY THE PUBLIC

PRINTER, HAVING PROPER REGARD TO
ECONOMY, WORKMANSHIP, AND THE
PURPOSES FOR WHICH THE WORK IS

NEEDED (U.S.C., TITLE 44, SEC. 216).

PREFACE

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. In addition, the MANUAL attempts to keep abreast of and sometimes anticipate changes in orthography, grammar, and type production. It has grown with Government and the ever-expanding body of language with new terms and expressions.

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 the need of additional chargeable processing by the GPO.

It should be remembered that the MANUAL is primarily a GPO printers stylebook. Easy rules of grammar cannot be prescribed, for it is assumed that editors are versed in correct expression. As a printers book, it necessarily uses terms which are obvious to those skilled in the graphic arts. A glossary of such printing terms to be complete would unnecessarily burden the MANUAL. (See bibliography on pp. 2-3.)

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 which enter into the translation of manuscript into type.

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