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The marks an editor writes on a paper proof. One structural fact makes the whole system legible and is worth more than any individual symbol: every correction is made twice, once in the text at the point of error to locate it and once in the margin to say what to do. A reader who knows only that can follow a marked proof without recognising most of the marks on it. The system is standardised — BS 5261 in Britain, long convention in America — and the two traditions differ in several marks, so records name the jurisdiction where they diverge. It is also a system in decline: digital track-changes has displaced it, and a reader is most likely meeting these on an archived proof rather than a current one.
The two-part system of textual and marginal marks used to correct a printed proof.
A looped stroke in the margin instructing that marked text be removed.
An upward wedge in the text showing where something is to be inserted.
Dots under cancelled text with the word stet, restoring it.
A looping stroke swapping two adjacent letters or words.
Two facing arcs instructing that a space be removed.
A vertical stroke or hash instructing that a space be added.
A pilcrow or bracket instructing that a paragraph break be made.
A single underline instructing that text be set in italics.
A wavy underline instructing that text be set in bold.
Three lines under a letter instructing that it be set as a capital.
Brackets and arrows instructing that material be moved or aligned.
A circled question mark asking the author to resolve something.
A circled 'wf' marking a character set in the wrong typeface.
A circled abbreviation or numeral instructing that it be written in full.