Page:The practice of typography; correct composition; a treatise on spelling, abbreviations, the compounding and division of words, the proper use of figures and nummerals by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914.djvu/210

 196 System needed in irregular indentions side of the full measure. Another method indents the extracts two or more ems at the left and allows all lines to be flush at the right.

Date-lines and signature-lines are habitually indented one em at the right end of the line. When there are many signatures to a document, each name must begin evenly at an arbitrarily fixed point on the left, regardless of the space made at the ending.

An address to a person or corporation at the beginning of a letter needs no indention for its first line, but the formal complimentary salutation of Dear Sir or Gentlemen, which is intended to follow the name of the person or the firm, should be indented one em.

The complimentary conclusion of Yours truly and similar phrases should be in a separate line, and indented, when it can be done, so that the last letter of the preceding line shall be at a regular distance from the beginning of the following line.

There are other forms of irregular composition for which set rules cannot be given, but this general rule may be observed: to give needed prominence to lines, space should be as evenly distributed as the nature of the work will allow.

Nor can arbitrary rules be given for the indention of poetry. It is customary to give similar indention to the lines that rime, but there are authors who insist on their own treatment of indention,