Blue pencil (editing)

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Pencil colored points on opposite ends. Text on the pencil reads, "Swiss Made * BICOLOR * Caran d'Ache 999".
Red and blue checking pencil

A blue pencil, also known as a checking pencil, is a two-color pencil traditionally used by an editor to correct a written copy.[1] The blue end is typically Prussian blue, and the red end is typically a warm vermilion red.[1][2] They are most often half red and half blue, but some are 70% red and 30% blue.[3] An editor-in-chief would use a blue colored pencil to make proofreading marks and final notes on manuscripts before sending it to be typeset and published.[4][5] The pencils and their blue excisions became associated with the editing process and editorial oversight.[6][7]

Of course it takes skill to be a poet! But an editor? A pair of shears, a blue pencil, and a paste-pot!

— Alice Corbin Henderson[8]

Since the introduction of desktop publishing, editing is typically done on computer files and without literal blue pencils.[9][10][11] They continue to be used in the Japanese newspaper industry and elementary schools in parts of Europe.[1][12] A different type of non-photo blue pencil is used by some comics artists for different purposes.[13]

History

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catalog page, full text at link
AW Faber Catalog (1940) with blue, red, and bicolor pencils

Neither the exact date that blue pencils were introduced nor the details of how they became an editing standard are certain.[14] Blue checking pencils were sold in the United States during the nineteenth century. Eberhard Faber offered a range of two-color pencils by 1873.[15][14] Multinational manufacturer AW Faber sold wood and mechanical blue pencils in the late 1800s.[16] By 1888, "blue pencil" was being used as a synonym for "edit" or "censor".[17] During World War II, bi-color pencils were used to mark troop positions on maps.[18][3]

Censorship

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Blue pencils became associated with editorial control and with censorship. Under the Estado Novo in Portugal the "blue pencil" became a metaphor as editors would use blue pencils to censor out portions of works rather than banning them the entire text.[19] In parts of Africa, the "blue pencil" became a metaphor for the censorship and banning of entire books.[20]

Post pencils

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Hungarian school pencil

In parts of Europe, blue pencils are used in elementary schools.[12][21] In Hungary, children are taught the difference between uppercase and lowercase by writing the cases in different colors.[21] In Germany, they are used to write separate syllables and numerical digits in alternating colors.[3] In Italian classrooms, they are used to mark separate types of errors.[3]

The blue pencils for schoolchildren are sold as "copying pencils" or "post pencils".[22][12][21] In early twentieth-century Germany, blue pencils were used to mark postal routes.[21] Checking pencils have been called "post pencils" as early as 1909 in Europe.[12]

Non-photo blue pencils

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Main article: Non-photo blue
Non-photo blue pencils have had a different but overlapping role in comic book production.

In the production of comic books, blue pencils have a different but overlapping usage. American comic books are typically illustrated by multiple specialists. The penciller does the initial drawing, the inker brushes black ink over the pencil art, and the colorist adds colors to photocopies or digital scans of the inked art. Some pencillers have worked with non-photo blue pencils.[23][24] These cyan colored pencils leave marks that orthochromatic film for offset lithography does not capture,[25] and digital scanners can filter that out.[24]

Editors used the same cyan pencils to add notes to art before publishing, like editors in the broader publishing industry.[25] Original pencil art for comics was initially treated "as a means to an end rather than as an object of intrinsic value" but has come to be viewed as valuable pieces of art.[26] The un-inked pencil drawings provide a more detailed representation of the original illustrators' work and have blue-pencil notes that sometimes go beyond technical issues to address ideas discussed in the creative process but never used in finished comic books.[26][23]

For similar reasons, some illustrators use red pencils that be filtered out with xerography or digital scanners. Comic book artist Rob Guillory used checking pencils to illustrate Chew and Farmhand.[13] [24][27]

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Main article: blue pencil doctrine

The blue pencil doctrine is a legal concept in common law countries where a court finds that portions of a contract are void or unenforceable, but other portions are enforceable. It derives its name from the court's ability to edit a written contract, similar to how an editor-in-chief would edit a manuscript.[28]

The blue pencil rule allows the legally valid enforceable provisions of the contract to stand despite the nullification of the legally void unenforceable provisions. However, the revised version must represent the original meaning. The rule may not be invoked, for example, to delete the word "not" and thereby change a negative to a positive.[28]

References

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Look up blue-pencil in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
  1. ^ a b c "三菱鉛筆　赤青鉛筆" [Mitsubishi Red and Blue Pencils]. pen-info.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  2. ^ "Red and Blue pencils from Berol México, Caran d'Ache, and Linex". Pencil Talk. 17 February 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d "Rot und Blau (1)". Lexikaliker. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  4. ^ Krausman, Paul R. (2020). "A Brief History of Management Implications". The Journal of Wildlife Management. 84 (2): 199–200. doi:10.2307/26886246. ISSN 0022-541X. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  5. ^ Brandt, Deborah (2018). "2017 CCCC Exemplar Award Acceptance Speech: On the Job". College Composition and Communication. 70 (1): 126–128. ISSN 0010-096X.
  6. ^ "Blue Pencil". Merriam Webster. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  7. ^ "Front Matter". The Journal of Education. 125 (1). 1942. ISSN 0022-0574.
  8. ^ Henderson, Alice Corbin (1916). "Of Editors and Poets". Poetry. 8 (6): 308–308. ISSN 0032-2032.
  9. ^ The 1976 word processor Electric Pencil could use a spell checker & grammar checker from Cornucopia Software called "Blue Pencil" because it was intended to mark up a document similar to a human editor.
  10. ^ Bergin, T.J. (October 2006). "The Origins of Word Processing Software for Personal Computers: 1976-1985". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 28 (4): 32–47. doi:10.1109/MAHC.2006.76.
  11. ^ Yousef, Mohammed. "What is Blue-Pencil Editing?". Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  12. ^ a b c d "Rot und Blau". Lexikaliker. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  13. ^ a b Guillory, Rob (10 July 2018). ""I Just Didn't Care About Doing Anything Else": An Interview with Rob Guillory". The Comics Journal (Interview). Interviewed by Dueben, Alex. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  14. ^ a b "Rot und Blau (5)". Lexikaliker. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  15. ^ "Rot und Blau (4)". Lexikaliker. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  16. ^ "Rot und Blau (3)". Lexikaliker. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2011). "blue-pencil". Green's Dictionary of Slang. ISBN 9780199829941 – via Oxford Reference.
  18. ^ Petroski, Henry (1990). The pencil. Knopf. pp. 296–299. ISBN 978-0-394-57422-6.
  19. ^ Castro, Hugo (2023). "Protest Song and Recording in the Final Stages of the Estado Novo in Portugal (1960–1974)". Music and the Making of Portugal and Spain. University of Illinois Press: 135–152. doi:10.5406/jj.6305470.11.
  20. ^ Read, James S. (1967). "Censored". Transition (32): 37–41. doi:10.2307/2934623. ISSN 0041-1191.
  21. ^ a b c d Brigitta, Barnóczki (16 August 2018). "Postairón nélkül nincs iskolakezdés. Tanszerkörkép!". divany.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  22. ^ Postairón in Hungarian, poststift German.
  23. ^ a b O, Dick (16 December 2016). "Original Comic Art Collecting: 102". CBSI Comics. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  24. ^ a b c Ellis, Mark; Ellis, Melissa Martin (1 January 2008). The Everything Guide to Writing Graphic Novels: From superheroes to manga—all you need to start creating your own graphic works. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4405-2428-8.
  25. ^ a b Grushkin, Philip; Shaw, Paul (Summer 2014). "A small 'M' modern master". Eye Magazine. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  26. ^ a b Petersen, Robert (2011). Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels: A History of Graphic Narratives. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-0-313-36330-6.
  27. ^ McAlpine, Dayna (22 February 2024). "The Very Important Reason Why Actors Are Given Red Scripts". HuffPost UK. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  28. ^ a b Del Rossi, Lawrence J. "Part VII of "The Restricting Covenant" Series: Blue Pencils and Brokers". National Law Review. VII (254).
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