News release typography and layout standards

@@ -5,9 +5,11 @@ content_type: topic
slug: news-release-standards
short_description: "Strict formatting rules for corporate news syndication: left alignment, title case discipline, geographic precision, and standardized header and dateline structures."
title: "News release typography and layout standards"
quality: complete
status: active
audience: vendor-public
bcsc_class: current-fact
language: en
language_protocol: PROSE-TOPIC
paired_with: news-release-standards.es.md
category: reference
index_group: editorial-and-publishing-standards
@@ -15,37 +17,21 @@ index_group: editorial-and-publishing-standards



The platform enforces strict formatting rules for corporate news syndication to ensure absolute clarity and institutional authority. By adhering to ISO 24495-1 Plain Language principles, the system guarantees that [[disclosure-substrate|disclosures]] are accessible and professional across both digital and physical mediums.
Corporate news releases carry more scrutiny than ordinary wiki prose: they are read by press, by regulators, and by counterparties evaluating a disclosure's credibility at a glance. A release that reads inconsistently across formats — a jagged justified-text block here, an all-caps headline there — reads as less institutionally credible regardless of its content. The platform's news-release format follows ISO 24495-1 Plain Language principles for exactly this reason: consistency of layout is itself part of what makes a [[disclosure-substrate|disclosure]] read as authoritative, across both digital and physical mediums.

## 1. Universal Layout Requirements
## Universal layout

To maintain accessible visual tracking and institutional consistency, all news releases must adhere to these baseline rules:
Every release is left-aligned (ragged right) rather than justified — justified text produces erratic word spacing that disrupts reading flow at the density a release demands. Headlines and corporate entity names use Title Case; all-caps blocks are avoided for the same clarity reason. Provinces and states are spelled out in full ("British Columbia" rather than "BC"), removing any ambiguity for an international reader unfamiliar with a jurisdiction's postal abbreviations.

* **Left Alignment (Ragged Right):** All text must be left-aligned. Justified text is prohibited to prevent erratic spacing that disrupts reading flow.
* **Case Sensitivity:** Title Case is mandatory for headlines and corporate entities. The use of all-caps blocks for names or locations is prohibited.
* **Geographic Precision:** Provinces and states must be spelled out in full (e.g., "British Columbia" instead of "BC"). This prevents international jurisdictional ambiguity.
## Print presentation

## 2. Institutional Print Standards
A physical release is set with a bold, Title Case header and a dateline separated from the narrative by an en-dash or em-dash, following a standard "For Immediate Release" structure — headline, then a Vancouver, British Columbia dateline, then the narrative body. This is the print convention institutional readers already expect from a press release, which is why the platform follows it rather than inventing its own.

Physical news releases are intended to project institutional trust through a standardized "White Paper" aesthetic:
* **Header:** Bold, Title Case.
* **Dateline:** Separated from the narrative by an en-dash (–) or em-dash (—).
* **Mandatory Structure:**
 **For Immediate Release**
 **[Headline in Title Case]**
 **Vancouver, British Columbia – [Date] –** [Narrative body copy...]
## Digital presentation

## 3. Digital Presentation Standards
A web-based release uses an H2 for the release category (for example, "Operational Update") and an H1 for the headline, with a pipe symbol separating the dateline elements — corporate entity and release category, then headline, then a "For immediate release" line with location and date — on their own metadata lines. The semantic-heading structure gives a screen reader and a search engine the same hierarchy a print reader gets from typography alone.

Web-based releases use specific semantic tags and separators to ensure high-density readability:
* **Semantic Hierarchy:** Use H2 for the release category (e.g., "Operational Update") and H1 for the headline.
* **Metadata Pipe:** Use a pipe symbol (|) to separate dateline elements on a dedicated metadata line.
* **Structure:**
 **[Corporate Entity] — [Release Category]**
 **[Headline Title Case]**
 **For immediate release | Vancouver, British Columbia | [Date]**

These standards ensure that every platform disclosure maintains a consistent [[editorial-language-registers|voice of authority]], whether viewed on a high-DPI display or a physical printed page.
Together these three layers keep every platform disclosure reading with the same [[editorial-language-registers|voice of authority]], whether viewed on a high-DPI display or a physical printed page.

## See also