DIN 5008

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Logo of the German Institute for Standardization DIN 5008
Area Office and administration
title Writing and design rules for word processing and information processing
Latest edition 2020-03
ISO N / A

The DIN 5008 standard provides writing and design rules for text and information processing . It is one of the basic standards for work in the office and administration area. The standard is currently being drawn up by the national DIN standards committee for information technology and applications (NIA), working committee NA 043-03-01 AA “Text and information processing for office applications”.

Until 1996, DIN 5008 considered writing with the typewriter without exception ; Since the new version of 1996, the design options with PC word processing programs have also been part of the standard. The 2020 version no longer mentions the typewriter at all.

scope of application

The rules and recommendations for word processing concern the typographically correct use of punctuation marks, characters for words, arithmetic symbols, formulas and number structures as well as letter design, the structure of tables and the structure of texts. This provides instructions on how to design documents appropriately and clearly. The standard does not explicitly regulate text content and spelling, even if the standard text contains numerous examples and notes.

As an example, the following is regulated for addressing in letters:

"The salutation begins at the alignment and is separated from the following text by a blank line."

For the text content of such a salutation, the regulation text is followed by examples such as:

  • Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,
  • Dear Governing Mayor, dear
    District Mayors ,

and reference is also made to examples in the appendix where complete letter designs are shown. The regulation text is also supplemented by information such as

"When writing to high-ranking personalities, it is urgently recommended to find out about the correct addressing and salutation of these people [...]."

This clearly states that the examples are not exhaustive and that the salutation text content is not regulated here.

Origin and development of DIN 5008

In 1928 the Reichskuratorium für Wirtschaftlichkeit (RKW) brought out the “Guidelines for the Handling of Business Mail” drawn up by the Working Group for Economic Management (AWV), to which in 1930 AWV Leaflet 1 “The Business Letter” and AWV Leaflet 2 “Rules for Typing ”followed. Leaflet 2 appeared in 17 editions by 1945. In April 1949, the technical standards committee for office systems in the German standards committee (today the German Institute for Standardization ) adopted the AWV rules as DIN 5008.

The first edition of DIN 5008 in April 1949 was followed by updates in June 1951, November 1963, November 1975, November 1986, May 1996, November 2001, May 2005, April 2011 and March 2020, which increased to 126 pages. Since the 2011 edition, the content of the withdrawn DIN 676 has been integrated. The specifications and recommendations for PC word processing and (until 2011) for typing specify punctuation marks, characters for words, arithmetic symbols, formulas, number structures, tables and the structure of texts in order to provide instructions on how to design documents appropriately and clearly .

Changes in 1996

Among other things, only the international date format according to ISO 8601 should be permissible for the numerical notation of the date (YYYY-MM-DD).

Changes in 2001

  • One of the changes was that for a foreign postal address, the country of destination should be written in capital letters and in German under postcode and destination. Before doing this , the country code should be placed in front of the postcode, provided that this has been agreed between Deutsche Bundespost or Deutscher Post AG and the postal authority of the recipient country.
  • The numerical date format customary in Germany (DD.MM.YYYY) has been re-approved if no misunderstandings are to be expected.
  • No blank line in front of the location in the address field.

Changes in 2011

In this edition, the revised DIN 676: 1995 is incorporated as section 16; Endless formats and short guide words in the reference character line from DIN 676 were no longer taken into account. In addition, section 17 “Lettering on letter sheets” has been adapted. Section 13 “Diagrams and Figures” and Section 15 “Longer Texts” have also been added. The structure has been updated, the current official spelling rules have been incorporated and the application examples in the appendix have been revised. Appendix G "Explanations" is deleted; the explanations are included as comments in the respective section.

Furthermore, the height of the address field can be increased from 40 to 45 mm and the postal address of the sender (so-called return information ) can be included in small letters (8 points ) in the additional and comment area (see below). Furthermore, standard designations for the templates previously defined in DIN 676 were introduced.

The last 25 pages of the standard with annexes A to F are only informative, not normative content.

Changes 2020

In this fundamentally revised and significantly expanded edition, underlining as a permitted method of marking and certain address field lines have been removed, the spelling of numbers (e.g. structure of IBAN, date, time) has been revised, tables and electronic correspondence (previously only e-mail ) more precisely described, many examples added and separate sections for writing on special occasions , presentations , minutes and file storage , subsections for the non-breaking space, the diameter symbol and headings as well as appendices on keyboard and coding added.

Examples of regulations

Optical impression of a DIN-compliant form letter
Dimensioning of the business letter form A
Dimensioning of the business letter form B

Among other things, DIN 5008 regulates the following (the regulations and section numbers mentioned refer to the 2011 edition):

Abbreviations (Section 4.5)

In abbreviations consisting of several letters, each of which has a point and stands for a word, a space must be placed between the abbreviated words: a. a. O., d. h., v. l. n. r., e.g. B. etc. To avoid unwanted line breaks within the abbreviation, a non-breaking space should be used.

Abbreviations that are spoken like independent words or literally should be written without a period and without spaces. Examples: UNICEF, Kfz

Characters for words and arithmetic symbols (Sections 7 and 8)

According to Section 7, characters for words as well as arithmetic symbols (Section 8) are to be written like written words with spaces before and after. However, no space is written before and after a slash. In addition to the ampersand & , it says that it may only be used for company names.

Emphasis (Section 11)

The standard cites the following types of highlighting as examples : indentation, underlining, centering, quotation marks, changing the font, changing the font size, bold, italic, capital letters and colors. Underlining should be avoided - with the exception of the automatically indicated hyperlinks  - in favor of a changed font style , because descenders (as with g and p) should not be striped or cut.

Letter forms and letter templates (Section 16)

The rules for the letter form or the letter template are adapted to the paper format A4 (210 mm × 297 mm). A distinction is made between Form A with a superscript address field (32 mm below the upper edge of the sheet) and Form B with a subscript address field (50 mm below the upper edge of the sheet). In addition to this basic information, the standard names and shows the size and positions of preprinted parts such as letterhead, address field, fold marks, etc.

Letter design (section 17)

  1. Lines start at the vanishing line , 2.5 cm from the left edge of the sheet. The individual paragraphs of the letter are separated from each other by a blank line.
  2. The sender in small print above the address field ("return details") contains the address in abbreviated form, if applicable. If the letter is correctly positioned and folded accordingly, this line also fits into the window of a window envelope.
  3. The EDP-compatible address field has 9 lines according to international standards: 3 lines for the additional and comment zone (ZVZ), 6 lines for the address zone (AZ). The top line or line 3 (counting from bottom to top in the comment zone) is approx. 3.4 cm below the upper edge of the page in the case of a letterhead according to form A. Empty lines within the address are not provided. All additions are immediately above the recipient address, which always begins in the 4th line. For foreign addresses , the place and country of destination are written in CAPITAL LETTERS, whereby the place should be given in the language of the destination country (i.e. BRUXELLES instead of Brussels, FIRENZE instead of Florence), while the destination country should be in German. If a district is to be specified in addition to the destination , this is inserted above the street (see also the Swiss Post information brochure from July 1, 2006).
    • 3. ZVZ - z. B. electronic postage indicia
    • 2. ZVZ - z. B. Advance disposal Do not forward!
    • 1. ZVZ - z. B. Registered / Recommandé
    • 1. AZ - Company (= company name)
    • 2. AZ - salutation, if applicable professional or official title
    • 3. AZ - if applicable, academic degrees (e.g. Dr., Dipl.-Ing., Dipl.-Hdl.), Name
    • 4. AZ - street / house number (if applicable // apartment no.) Or post office box
    • 5. AZ - post code and destination
    • 6. AZ - (COUNTRY)
  4. The line of reference symbols contains the reference symbols of the sender, i.e. information on previous correspondence, the extension number, the name of the person in charge, the date and, if applicable, dictation symbols (e.g. fan8-cc). The date is written numerically 2006-06-07 (YYYY-MM-DD) or alphanumerically 7 June 2006 (date format according to ISO 8601 ). The information is written under the pre-printed headwords. - As an alternative to the line of reference symbols, there is often an information block to the right of the address field .
  5. In a communication line to the right of the last line of the address field, e.g. B. Telephone number and / or fax number . The email -Adressierung, the bank (s) with bank code and IBAN and other important business information - such as company registration and tax identification number  - are usually given in the footer of the letter.
  6. The subject in the form of a summary table of contents begins at the vanishing line, is not underlined and ends without a period. It can be highlighted in bold and / or color. The word subject itself is no longer written. Two lines remain free under the subject.
  7. The salutation must be separated from the following text with a blank line.
  8. The text is written with line spacing 1 (one line) and divided by blank lines.
  9. The greeting begins at the line of flight and is separated from the text by a blank line.
  10. After the greeting, the name of the company or authority follows with a blank line space.
  11. In practice, the distance for the typewritten signature (s) depends on the necessity. The samples of DIN 5008 show a space of three blank lines.
  12. Attachment and distribution notes are separated by a blank line under the signatory's name or written with a blank line spacing from the text on the right (at 125 mm from the left edge of the sheet) next to the greeting.

Notation of the date

See also the article date format , section DIN 5008.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : DIN 5008  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DIN 5008: 2020-03, foreword
  2. ↑ DIN 5008_2020-03, Section 1: Area of application . Excerpt: »This standard does not specify" what "is to be written, but rather" how "a given content is presented."
  3. ↑ DIN 5008: 2020-03, Section 20: Use of letter forms and templates. Subsection 20.9: Subject and partial subject. Subsection 20.9.4: Salutation
  4. ↑ Alfred Waize, Bernd Hastaedt: About DIN 5008 . 10th edition. Kieser Verlag / Heckners Verlag, Troisdorf 2002, ISBN 3-8242-6446-3 , p. 6.
  5. ↑ a b FAQ on DIN 5008 - Frequently asked questions on DIN 5008, writing and design rules for word processing. German Institute for Standardization, December 17, 2009, archived from the original on March 17, 2010 ; accessed on March 4, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Knowledge on the Internet. Amendment A1 to DIN 5008 resolved (INFO 1849, February 2005). In: Homepage bund.de - Administration online. Federal Office of Administration, February 2005, archived from the original on May 24, 2006 ; accessed on October 18, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Just write correctly. DIN press office, March 2, 2020, accessed on March 8, 2020 .
  8. ^ Karl Wilhelm Henke: The draft standard DIN 5008 from April 2019. Westermann Group , April 2019, accessed on February 28, 2020 .