Re: “Text is irregular.” This means that a few sample documents may not show all the possibilities. There are a lot of”What If” questions to be asked, such as: What if a chapter title is long and requires two lines? Will it still fit in the page header?  What should it look like in the table of contents? The sample documents may contain fewer than 99 pages, but what if there are more than 99 pages? Is there space in the table of contents for three-digit page numbers? The issue here is domain knowledge. IT developers working with XML formatting need to acquire it, otherwise they can make mistakes equivalent to rounding off entries in a bookkeeping application to the nearest dollar.

Re: Different types of documents. What if you received a document with information about your 401K account and you noticed formatting glitches? Your trust in the company that has your money could be affected. On the other hand, a mechanic reading a thousand-page technical manual could probably care less about formatting problems—as long as the essential information is accurate.

Re: Automation. Working with text has always been a laborious process. When manuscripts were copied by hand, the change to hand-set movable type was a huge improvement. But after a few hundred years of composing type by picking up each tiny letter and setting it next to the previous tiny letter, some folks thought there had to be a better way. Of course, not everyone felt that way, and it’s no different today. However, when a new technology saves time and money, it generally replaces the old technology, whether we like it or not.

Re: The aesthetics of formatting. Formatting is not just about aesthetics.

Formatting specs affect the reader’s desire and ability to read the document. This is very important because if readers do not want to read the document or cannot read it, the time and cost of writing and publishing the document is wasted. Ideally, formatting makes readers want to read the document and make it easy to read the document. Choices for font, leading, and margins have a lot to do with the desire and ability to read a document, but there are other factors that are not so obvious. Tables are an excellent example. It may seem best to include all cell and table borders in order to organize tabular material for the reader. In fact, the lines, and especially the corners, add to the reader’s effort. For tables, it is actually better to use white space instead of lines when possible in order to separate table rows and columns—white space does not increase what the reader must process.

In addition, formatting helps guide the reader through the document. For example, a two-column layout with Z-paging presents an ambiguous reading order when a table or graphic spans both columns in the middle of the page. After reading the content in the upper left corner and encountering the page-wide object, does the reader go to the upper right corner or continue reading down the first column? In some documents, reading instructions out of order can injure or kill the reader! L- paging solves the problem by eliminating text from the upper right corner. However, L-paging creates a new problem by increasing the page count of the document.

Formatting specs are also about economics. One point is 1/72 of an inch, so an extra point or two in formatting specs may seem insignificant. However, extra space may result in an extra line, and an extra line may result in an extra page, and an extra page may result in an extra signature or an even extra volume! All of which add up to extra, unnecessary, cost.

Consider a two-page document printed on both sides of one sheet of paper.  If the number of pages increases to three, twice as many sheets of paper are needed. If only a few copies of the document are needed, that’s not a big deal. But if a million copies are printed—you do the math. And added expense goes far beyond the cost of the paper. The cost of ink, press time, and shipping are also increased. 

Consider a 160-page document printed with a 16-page signature (16-up). One extra page adds another signature, and results in a printed document with 161 printed pages followed by 15 blank pages. This increases the cost of paper, printing, binding, and shipping.

Consequently, formatting specs for printed documents are generally designed to fit as much on each page as possible without sacrificing the ability to read the material or the reader’s desire to read it.

Does XML help? Yes! A stylesheet for batch formatting of XML content ensures the desired formatting specs are utilized; incorporates style guidelines and corporate identity strictures; and produces formatting that is truly standardized. In addition, multiple outputs from a single source widens the formatting possibilities. For example, a fancy four-color version can be produced for customers and a plain black-and-white version can be output for employees, just by changing stylesheets. But so much more is possible. For example, different color versions designed for readers with different kinds of color impairment. So, a change to XML is a good time to re-evaluate the readership and their needs.