Headline Counts

Sonia Jaffe Robbins, Editing Workshop, G54.1123, WEEK V

Headline Counts

In the old days, before computerized layout, copy editors could only estimate how much space a headline would take up. They did this using the headline count system. This system is based on the fact that, in proportional-width fonts, some letters are wider or narrower than others. Based on the fonts used and the newspaper's column width, the count system varied from newspaper to newspaper. (The count system below is based on the one formerly used by Newsday.)

To use this system, the copy editor needed to know how many columns wide the headline would be, what point size was called for, and how many lines were allotted. For example, a headline noted as 3-36-2 meant that the headline had to be 3 columns wide, 36 point, and 2 lines. (Sometimes point size was indicated by letters, e.g., A heds, B heds, etc.) Once the copy editor knew this information, he or she looked at the chart below and read across to find the required column width and down to find the required point size, then found where these two columns intersected on the grid. In this example, that intersection is 24.

The copy editor then wrote a headline and then assigned each letter and space between words a number -- 1/2, 1 or 1-1/2 (see "counting characters," below the Headline Count grid) -- and added up the total for each line. The number 24 in this example meant that the total for each line could not be more than 24.

For example, here is a sample headline:

Finding the Universal Laws

That Are There, Waiting...

In the first line:

The following letters count for 1-1/2 each: F, U, L, w	= 6
The following letters count for 1 each: n, d, n, g, h, e, n, v, e, r, s, a, a, w	= 14
The following letters count for 1/2 each: i, i, t, i, l	= 2-1/2
The three spaces count for 1/2 each	= 1-1/2
Total	= 24

In the second line:

The following letters count for 2 each: W	= 2
The following letters count for 1-1/2 each: T, A, T	= 4-1/2
The following letters count for 1 each: h, a, r, e, h, e, r, e, a, n, g	= 11
The following letters count for 1/2 each: t, i, t, i	= 2
The following punctuation counts for 1/2 each: , . . .	= 2
The three spaces count for 1/2 each	= 1-1/2
Total	= 23

HEADLINE COUNTS

Number of columns (read across)

Point size (read down)	1	2	3	4	5	6
14	20	43	65
18	16	33	51	68	85	103
24	11	24	37	60	62	75
30	9	19	29	40	50	60
36	7	16	24	33	41	50
42		14	21	28	35	43
48		12	18	25	31	37
54		10	16	22	27	33
60		9	14	20	25	30
72			12	16	20	25

Counting characters:

lower-case:	all count as 1, except	f, i, j, l, t = 1/2	m, w= 1
upper-case:	all count as 1-1/2, except	I = 1	M, W = 2
punctuation:	all count as 1/2, except	em-dash = 1
figures:	all count as 1
spaces between words:	1/2

Last revision: January 21, 2004