Xerox Publishing Standards: A Manual of Style and Design

I've been a technical communicator for 17 years, and bought this book when it first came out. With the advent first of electronic publishing, where everyone had to know something about layout and design, and next with the Internet explosion where even your dog's vet has a website, poorly designed or not, and now, the advent of XML, which will further drive the art of communication into the hands of the unskilled, this book is a gem. It is still as applicable now as it was then, and easily applies to electronic style guidelines as well as to print. If you are at all interested in how people learn, how they consume information, what works in layout (electronic or print) and what does not, read this book. It should be mandatory reading for everyone who works in the 'knowledge industry', from tech writers to webmasters to information architects.

Desktop publishing has raised the bar on professional documentation. Consultants and other professionals need to be able to turn out volumes of reports, requirements documents, plans, and a variety of other professional documentation. It is no longer good enough that these materials are neatly typed on the page. Reports need to have an attractive, professional look to them. The Xerox Style Guide provides a full range of advice on layout, style, and correct usage. I found the layout portions helpful in achieving page layout that looks highly professional and improves the comprehension of the reader. The advice on writing clear is also helpful, and more concise than many other style guides.

An impressive work which has aged well. The design notes and example it sets transcend the print medium. This is the Platonic ideal of standards manuals.