pages combined for online review and printing
Standards
To minimise manual editing prior to typesetting, Goldenford authors are asked to deliver their manuscript at a high electronic quality.
To help achieve this, standards on the following three pages are mandatory.
Following the general approach set out here will benefit all authors, irrespective of the publisher you use.
We recognise that some techniques may be unfamiliar. For those who need further background, please see our help pages.
Templates supporting Goldenford standards can be downloaded
Technical enquiries and information info@goldenford.co.uk
technical updated 10:09 Aug 23 2005
Word processing standards
Standards on this page are mandatory. Are you serious?
working documents
- the same style sheet and styles for all documents comprising the book
- consistent layout and headings set by paragraph styles, not by formatting individual paragraphs
- A4 portrait page layout
- language set to UK English
- no page or section breaks (apart from those controlled by paragraph styles)
- no blank paragraphs (no empty lines)
- no additional spaces or tabs to control layout
- single spaces at the end of sentences and between words
- smart quotes, used consistently
- consistent use of continuation characters, eg ...
- never more than three consecutive periods... with or without spaces
- no full stops in acronyms etc, eg Mrs Jones's CD, not e.g. Mrs. Jones's C.D.
- a separate document defining all paragraph styles in use
final electronic document
The document you submit must be:
- a single electronic document saved in MS Word or OpenOffice format (see also master documents [main.pl?chapters])
- with empty header and footer and no page numbers
general updated 20:15 Aug 1 2005
Style sequence standards
Standards on this page are mandatory. Are you serious?
The style sequence below works well and is easy to apply to an existing manuscript. These styles are likely to cover the majority of your text. Goldenford templates include additional styles, eg for embedded letters/emails within the text. You can invent others as the need arises. See also word processing standards
section style sequence
Use the paragraph styles in the sequence shown as you write your manuscript. Having the right sequence is essential.
|
description |
paragraph style |
|
Chapter title |
Heading 2 |
|
First paragraph |
Section first |
|
All subsequent paragraphs |
Section normal |
|
Last paragraph of section
|
Section last (separator) |
|
Visible section break |
Section separator |
Templates supporting Goldenford standards can be downloaded
Although you could use different names for the 'section' styles, providing they conform to this structure, we prefer our standard names.
Occasional situations, eg a section consisting of a single paragraph, require additional styles. Some of these are included in our templates.
See also working with styles [main.pl?styles]
Chapters can be separate documents (see master documents). When combined, the page break in 'Heading 2' gives correct pagination.
Suggested Paragraph Style settings
In Word, settings are in dialogue boxes starting from Format > Styles and Formatting
In OpenOffice, settings are in the floating styles palette. Right click to modify a style
Adjust the style settings so your manuscript looks good.
The sequence is much more important than the detailed settings.
- Section normal: for most text, first line indented, colour automatic, widow control, language UK English, following style section normal
- other styles dependent on Section normal, settings thus inherited unless explicitly changed
- Section first: Section normal + no indent, following style Section normal
- Section last (space): Section normal + desired spacing after, following style Section first
- Section last (separator): Section normal + keep with next, following style Section separator
- Section separator: Section normal + centred with desired spacing before and after, following style Section first
- Heading 2: for chapter headings, Section normal + page break before + spacing before and after 30pt + font size increase, following style Section first
- Heading 3: for sub-headings only if these are to be included in the table of contents, settings similar to Heading 2. You may need to adjust the spacing settings
see also styles familiarisation
Technical enquiries and information info@goldenford.co.uk
style_sequence updated 10:09 Aug 23 2005
Final checks
Here are some of the checks you need to do before submitting a manuscript:
- Have all multiple consecutive spaces been replaced with a single space?
- Have all tabs been removed?
- Have all spaces at the beginning of lines been removed?
- Have periods been removed in acronyms etc?
- Are all hyphens the same character?
- Is the use of smart quotes 100% consistent throughout the manuscript
- Are style sequences set correctly?
- Are applied paragraph styles limited to standard names plus additional ones you have defined?
- Is layout 100% consistent throughout the manuscript?
check updated 20:15 Aug 1 2005
Cover standards
Standards on this page are mandatory
For the final cover we need the original components of the cover (photographs, font names etc) or alternatively a layered document with the components that Photoshop can read (Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop* can save layered documents). Also supply a merged document with the cover layout shown as you want it to appear. You may be responsible for additional costs if you use a non-standard font.
The electronic document comprising the cover should be approximately full size and ideally at 600 dpi, minimum 300 dpi. The final cover is prepared at 300 dpi.
To maximise quality, keep original un-amended documents (ie the original electronic objects) for use as the basis of the final cover. This prevents the loss of quality usually associated with saving a succession of drafts. Reduction in quality may not show up on screen, but may do so at the higher quality used for printing covers.
* For background on image editors, see the online tutorial [www.onepoyle.net/art/tutorial/main.pl?image_tech] [new window].
cover updated 08:45 Jun 7 2005
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