Sorry, Harry you are wrong. The Powerhouse Museum has such a manual and museums around Oz use it as a template. It's called the Powerhouse Museum guide to label writing. It includes exapmples of different types of labels ie. introductory down to single object - defines them by type of info., font sizes, character and word length etc etc and graphics. it's the basis for all our labels. I used it for the first time as a curator on Absolutely Mardi Gras and it was not too painful a process. I think we are all pretty proud of our labels that we did - thanks to these guidelines. If anyone wants more info., please contact Jennifer blunder in our Print Media Department on [log in to unmask] or fax: 61 - 2- 92170434 (please note. all Sydney phone numbers are now prefixed by a 9 and are 8 digits long) Robert Swieca [log in to unmask] fax: 61 - 2- 92170441 ---------- From: daemon To: Multiple recipients of list MUSEUM-L Subject: Re: Text Standards Manuals - a reply Date: Tuesday, July 30, 1996 4:00PM I have seen this request before on Museum-L and the fact is that no one seems to actually HAVE such a manual - even quite large or well-established museums. There is a considerable body of research by Bitgood, Shettel and several others on the subject and, over the past year, I have spent a considerable amount of time looking at labels in various institutions in Canada, USA, Australia and NZ, and taking photos of the best and worst examples I could find. I have always been particularly concerned about labels and signage as I have retinitis pigmentosa, and have virtually no low-light vision and a visual field of only 15 degrees in either eye (and I'll bet all you people out there who know me just thought I was clumsy and dumb!). Also, I'm easily bored. Among the best examples, in my humble opinion,: - the new state history museum in Raleigh NC which uses very attractive labels, limited text, clean and attractive fonts and a colour combination of cranberry on cream. - the backlit amber on black 3 stage labels of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, some of which have backlit copies of historical paintings attached - excellent outdoor labels and maps at an interesting natural history park in Victoria,to which David Demant of Scienceworks took me last November. Perhaps one of the blokes from Oz can help me remember the names -labels at the wonderful Walters in Baltimore, one of only two art galleries/museums I've seen where the label writers had a sense of humour! As far as I'm concerned,it had precisely the kinds and amount of information I like in an art museum. Among the worst, - a western Canadian museum and a midwestern US art gallery, (both of which I decline to name), where exhibitions were introduced by, in one case, 3 and in the other, 5, huge text panels which no one reads - with later labels of the same quality - a NZ museum which used a colour scheme of black on dark royal blue, with what appeared to be 12 point Times Roman font. - Fort Ticonderoga. Some colour schemes work very well - dark forest green on pale sand, or dark blue on pale grey (or the reverse of each). The secret, for people like me who are almost legally blind, is good contrast, low glare and simple, but attractive and readable fonts. Fonts with minimal seriphs seem to appeal to most folks. I agree with Steve Bitgood and others who say that no label should have more than 70 words and 50 is probably better. I like the idea of large bold letters for the title; a second line with bold smaller titles containing a sentence of text and then a third line or two or three of regular face text to give those who want to dive down to a third level of information a bit more. This gives the visitor a choice of up to 3 levels of info. Harry Needham Canadian War Museum