Interesting site: prepressure.com

[Molly/CA]

While looking for a handier guide to punctuation of abbreviations, I came across this site, about all, or a heck of a lot, of things to do with getting material into print.

http://www.prepressure.com/

I'd be interested to hear the DTP experts' take on the quality of the information.

And about that guide to how to punctuate abbreviations... suggestions are welcome.

[PeterArnel]

Lots of it - Workflow change so quickly it would be better if it had a date on each page.

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by Molly/CA

www.prepressure.com

I'd be interested to hear the DTP experts' take on the quality of the information.

Looks pretty good. There are small errors of fact in a couple of places in the font section and again in some of the history. But the prepress advice looks to be sound.

Originally Posted by Molly/CA

And about that guide to how to punctuate abbreviations... suggestions are welcome.

I just received the New Hart’s Rules and it gets very specific about how to punctuate (and choose indefinite articles before) abbreviations. There are a couple of fairly long narratives (interesting), so I cannot easily summarize. But if you have a specific question or two, I could look it up.

Better yet: You could get a copy of this book. This is my (I think) 5th edition of this little gem. Unlike earlier editions, this one takes both English and American usage into account. Unlike Chicago Manual, it is small — could slip into a handbag or even a sturdy pocket.

Its typographic advice is better than Chicago’s and probably more comprehensive, though I still disagree with quite a bit of it. But it offers a good starting point.

[Molly/CA]

If my floor collapses under the weight of DTP-related books I'll know where to send the bill.

Sounds like a must-have.

More curiousity than anything, I'm rather against seeing periods where I don't think they belong and can't find the list of rationalizations I thought I had --none for ft because it's the first and last letters, none for lb and oz because they're Latin and Italian (so?), and no period in measurements in technical writing regardless (15mm, 2mg). Even the last more honored in the breach than the observance.

[Michael Rowley]

Molly:

no period in measurements in technical writing regardless

You have to distinguish between an abbreviation and a symbol. Abbreviations are always letters of the Latin alphabet and may have full stops or not; the symbols for physical units never have full stops, and may not consist of letters, though they usually do.

Abbreviations follow no fixed rule, though conventions may be almost as rigid, but international rules have gradually evolved. These rules are frequently ignored by typographers, and so are the conventions quite often: they may feel 'artistic licence' allows them to do it.

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by Molly/CA

More curiousity than anything, I'm rather against seeing periods where I don't think they belong and can't find the list of rationalizations I thought I had --none for ft because it's the first and last letters, none for lb and oz because they're Latin and Italian (so?), and no period in measurements in technical writing regardless (15mm, 2mg). Even the last more honored in the breach than the observance.

That is the problem — usage is a mess when it comes to periods with abbreviations.

I like the British practice of leaving them off some common ones — Mr, Mrs, Dr, and so on. The rationale there is that if the abbreviation ends with the last letter of the whole word, no period is required. Unless, of course, it might cause confusion, so there are great hosts of exceptions.

Here we use them pretty much all the time. But we too have exceptions.

In the end, it is a matter for house style. In your case, probably the publisher has some sort of standard. Or, actually, given what you report about these folks, maybe they do it all by random.