in weight, height, and slope. Ordinate captions are centered 

 on the left side (reading from the bottom up) and abscissa 

 captions are centered at the bottom of the graph. Both 

 captions are in capitals. Lettering made by typewriter 

 should be avoided. Not only is it less professional in appear- 

 ance than that done with a lettering set, but it is more 

 difficult to correct when additions or revisions are neces- 

 sary. 



The sizes and weights of the letters used in a graph 

 strongly influence the quality of the published figure (fig. 6). 

 Some of the letters naay be so large that they dominate 

 the graph, some so snaall that they will be illegible after 

 reduction. You can determine the correct lettering size 

 in two ways- -one not so precise as the other, however. A 

 reducing glass gives an approximate idea of the size and 

 legibility of a line of lettering after reduction. Figure 3 

 shows you quite accurately how large lettering from a given 

 pen and template size will be following a given reduction. 



I I T \ 



A. SECOND tf«06E TO FOURTH BRIDGE 



20 30 



SEPT. 



9 

 NOV. 



DATE 



Figure 6.— The coarse black lines and heavy lettering in this illustration present 

 an unpleasant contrast with the grayish hue of the printed page. The poorly 

 placed, badly corrected legend and poorly drawn curve add to the unprofessional 

 appearance of the figure. 



Watch for letters that are broken, ragged, or improperly 

 spaced. Equal spacing makes slender letters look poorly 

 spaced. Letters drawn freehand can give an amateurish 

 appearance to the drawing. Sometimes a worn template 

 causes a line of lettering to slip. Keep lines of lettering 

 parallel in a block of copy unless they are slanted for a 

 special reason. Labels placed in a horizontal position on 



13 



