Measures

A few guidelines to help you communicate numbers and measures in our brand style.

Dates

• We use this style: 1 June 2019
• Never 1 Jun 19, 1st June 2019, or 1/7/19
• We always write the year in full: 2019 not ‘17
• When writing a period of time, use ‘from’ and ‘to’, for example, ‘from 18 to 21 April’
• You can also use ‘between’ and ‘and’, for example, ‘between 18 and 21 April’
• Decades are written like this: the 1920s, the 1860s, 1990-1999, women in their 50s
• Write ‘from 1926 to 1928’, not ‘from 1926-28’, ‘between 1926 and 1928’, not ‘between 1926-28’
• The names of months should only be abbreviated in tables

Decimals

• Retain the zero before the decimal place, for example 0.6 not .6

Halves

• Half can be singular or plural
• For clarity, it’s better to write 'the population has fallen to less than half’ rather than ‘the population has more than halved'

Money

• Use two digits after the currency symbol or none if it’s a round number, for example £1.50, £7

Numbers

• Don’t start a sentence with a figure. Write it as a word, or re-phrase
• Only write the numbers one to ten in words. Anything higher should be written as a number
• A range of figures uses numbers such as 9-12 months
• Use figures for numbers ten and over and when using units of measurement, such as 10 miles
• Always include commas in numbers over 1,000, for example 10,000
• Fractions should be written in words with a hyphen, for example one-third, two-fifths
• Abbreviations used with figures should follow immediately with no space, for example 11am
• Millions should be abbreviated to 1m, 6.3m
• Billions should be abbreviated to 1bn, 6.3bn. A billion is 1,000 million
• Trillions are best avoided and are a million million. 2,000bn is preferable to 2 trillion
• Ranges should appear as £5m-£10m or 10,000-12,000, not £5m-10m or 10-12,000

Percentages

• Percentages should always be expressed in figures and with the % sign rather than words, for example 1%, 10%
• However, a rise in mortgage rates is written as a ‘1 percentage point rise’ or a ‘1 point rise’

Telephone numbers

• We don’t use brackets for dialling codes. We place a single space after the area code, then a single space after the next three digits: 0113 235 5429
• The dialling code should always be written in one block: 0113 or 08442
• A mobile phone number should always have a space after the first five digits: 07707 123456
• Avoid splitting telephone numbers over two lines

Time

• Use ‘to’ to show opening hours, for example 8am to 8pm
• Where the time requires a half hour this is written as 5.30pm
• Don’t use .00 for on-the-hour time, for example, use 9am instead of 9.00am
• Write days in the following format: ‘Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm, Saturday 8am to 4pm’