Style guides

Discussion articles

  • Building a better style guide (PDF)
    All too often businesses ask for a style guide as a means to create a common look and feel in the belief that it will solve usability problems and establish consistency between applications--only to be disappointed by the results. This paper explores strategies for creating a style guide that tis more than a simplistic rules book.

  • Creating and maintaining a web style guide
    "This article describes how to create and maintain a web style guide to better manage your organization’s web presence. "
    (Maish Nichani - Pebble Road)

  • Learn how to implement an effective web style guide
    A style guide helps you quickly and cost-effectively publish content that is of a consistent quality. It is particularly important when there are lots of editors and authors involved in the publishing process. A good style guide takes a lot of time and effort to create. Unless its implementation is policed, it will not achieve its objectives.

  • Style guidance
    Print publishers have long relied on in-house style guides for establishing textual coherence and a standardised appearance in their publications. A style guide is an invaluable resource for your staff, whether you're publishing on paper or online, but many Web teams don't recognise the importance of assembling one.

Style guides

  • Library of Congress World Wide Web Style Guide
    The Library of Congress World Wide Web Style Guide provides a general design framework and file structure for staff preparing content for the Library's website.

  • Style guide for online hypertext
    This document was written in the early days of the web, defining such terms as "webmaster", the "www.xxx.com" convention, and a few basic points which are just as valid today.  It has not been updated to discuss recent developments in HTML, and is out of date in many places.

  • Web Style Guide, 2nd edition
    The guidance we offer in Web Style Guide has always been grounded on the functional aspects of design. In this second edition we extend our focus on functionality with additional sections on website accessibility, Cascading Style Sheets, and flexible page design. We include additional sections on information architecture, site maintenance, and multimedia design. And we have added illustrations and updated our website examples to reflect current best practices.