The Publication Date

[justcarol67]

> > Catlady:
> 
> 
> > What is typecoding?
> >
> Carol:
> Oh, my. How can I explain? Typecoding, also called manuscript markup,
> involves providing certain codes for the typesetter to indicate a
> specific font or typesize or other element of the book design. For
> example, a particular code might be used to indicate a drop capital at
> the beginning of a chapter or an extracted quotation. A letter might
> be set in a different typeface from the rest of the text (for example
> Hagrid's letters in the HP books--the American designer may even have
> incorporated the tear splotches as well as the font into the design,
> and the typecoder would need to invent a specific code, say <haglet>
> to indicate a letter from Hagrid to be set in that particular style.
> Other codes, say CT for chapter title or UNL for unnumbered list, are
> farily standard if not universal among American publishers. (I've
> never typecoded a manuscript for a British publisher, but it can't be
> very different.)
> 
> montims:
> that is interesting, but what is the difference between that and
proofreading?  It sounds like what I imagine a proofreader doing,
although maybe things have changed since I learnt proof codes...

Carol responds:
Typecoding occurs at the manuscript stage, before the typesetter sets
the book in type. Proofreading compares the proofs to the edited and
typecoded manuscript to make sure that the typesetter has followed
directions and made all the needed corrections without introducing any
new errors. Once in awhile, a proofreader can make a new editorial
correction for an error that the copyeditor didn't catch but he or she
isn't going to add any new typecoding. 

Typecoding is all about fonts and type sizes and indentation to help
the typesetter match the book design; copyediting is about catching
errors the author made in grammar, punctuation, spelling, or sentence
structure; proofreading is about catching errors the typesetter made
in setting the edited manuscript in type. A manuscript page is either
typed or printed out from a computer program like Word; a proof page
looks like a page from a printed book only loose and on larger paper
(8 1/2" by 11" in the U.S.) and with wider margins. 

Here are some standard copyediting symbols:
http://www.highschooljournalism.org/Data/Articles/lessonplanknoxcarolynnestory2.jpg

Here's a copyedited manuscript page:
http://www.kristenbyers.net/portfolio/zakopane_marked.pdf

Here are some standard typecoding symbols (which would be used at the
manuscript stage, either before or after copyediting but before the
manuscript is typeset):
http://www.press.umich.edu/press/authinfo/editing.gif

(I can't find an example of a typecoded page.)

Here are some standard proofreading symbols (note how they differ from
the typecoding and copyediting symbols):
http://www.brookwood.edu/dodgeWritingCenter/images/proofing.gif

And here is a page proof marked by a proofreader:
http://www.cambridge.org/aus/images/proofs/example.gif

This illustration contrasts copyediting with proofreading
(unfortunately, I didn't find anything similar for typecoding):
http://creativeservices.iu.edu/resources/guide/img/example.gif

Carol, hoping that all this is interesting to anyone besides herself!