Each stage of proofreading my book before it’s sent to the printer results in more precise editing than the last stage.
There are a couple of places in the book that list dimensions of artwork. As I’ve said here many times, fine art is listed as HxWxD in inches or centimeters. I had always written dimensions as follows:
12 x 9”
or
12 x 9 inches
While the bottom version is fine, the top is not–according to the Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition, my style book preference). According to CMS, this is proper:
12 x 9 “ (with a space after the last number if there is a space before and following the x)
or
12”x9” (with no spaces, but the inch sign repeated)
This last one is the version I opted for in the book since I felt the space looked funny after the number. However, in the newsletter I use “12 x 9 inches.”
Who knew?!
Of course, another style book might have different rules.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Alyson, As a former graphic designer, I am a stickler for those pesky typography rules. One thing many people don’t realize is that using the ” sign does not always yield an inch sign. Depending on the font, you may get a quote sign. There are design programs that will change this for you, but most will require a change in font for the inch sign. (This also goes for the ‘ sign.) They should also be done in italics when that option is possible. Peggi
Yes, please use the “chicken scratch” straight quote for inches; it’s very common to see curly quotes instead (like in this post!).
It’s less about the font and more about whether your program is set to use curly quotes or not. For instance, if you’re composing in Microsoft Word and copying & pasting posts to the blog, it’s likely you’re copying the curly quotes with them.
Peggi & Eli: Yes! I forgot to mention that. And I just corrected those quote marks in my book text to make sure they are inch marks. Thanks for pointing that out.
PS: I don’t write these posts in Word, but in a plain text font. I have no idea how to change to inches in TypePad.
Does the HxW listing of original artwork dimensions also apply to art prints? It seems odd to list print prices that way (i.e. 20×16 rather than 16×20, etc.), especially if all prints of a particular size are a specific price. I tend to work almost exclusively in vertical format, so the dimensions would almost always need to be listed in reverse.
Dawn: YES! It applies to every piece of art.