[tirrigh-heralds] Ceremonial creation process

[Uilliam mac Ailéne mhic Seamuis]

Quentin the Chief Heraldic Dude of the Great White North wrote:
> Greetings unto the College of Heralds of Tir Righ from Quentin Silver Yale!
> 
> One of our duties as a College of Heralds is to provide the Coronet with 
> a ceremonial.

Greetings, Quentin SYH and all the other heralds of this college.

Some opinions regarding the Ceremonial, and mainly to do with formatting:

1. Minimum type size should be 16pt, maybe even 18pt. This makes it 
easier to read from in court without being obvious. Lots of us whose 
eyesight is less than optimum.

2. Should be printed in a non-serif font, such as one of the Arial or 
Helvetica families. Serifs are harder to read when held at a distance.

3. Each ceremony should start on a left-hand page, this will greatly 
reduce the requirements for page-turning during ceremonies. Lots of 
ceremonies that are 1-and-some pages long at the moment.

4. Ensure a clear and consistent use of such things as italics, bolding 
and underline. For instance, if it is established in one ceremony that 
boldface is used to indicate who is speaking (i.e., *HERALD*, *PRINCE*, 
etc.), then don't use italics for that same indication in a different 
ceremony.

5. Avoid footnotes. These are not scholarly documents; these are 
scripts. If a note needs to be made, insert it at the required point in 
the text, marked off by whatever is the agreed-upon form, whether it be 
italics, enclosed in a box or what-have-you.

6. The sections on court liason, how to do court and the historical 
ceremonies are valuable, but they do not need to be in the main part of 
the document. They should be included as appendices.

I */strongly/* recommend that the official copy have its pages in page 
protectors. This will help reduce liquid damage, whether it be rain or a 
cup of cheer. It will also make it easier for the herald to 
Crayon/dry-marker/China pencil in stuff in blank spots such as 
"___recipient___". You may scoff, but I've seen it happen - the herald 
gets into a zone, and actually says "recipient" during the ceremony.

I also note there's a number of ceremonies missing. Some are marked 
"This ceremony under development" or the equivalent, others are dealt 
with simply as a paragraph or two about the award or whatever it is. 
Some aren't there at all, but should be - i.e., herald baptism ceremony. 
We need to see what's in the An Tir Ceremonial that we may want to stea- 
er, adapt.

Tired now. Must go sleepies.

Yours aye,
Uilliam TNNFATCDHOTR

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