Editing Encyclopedia:Manual of Style (section)

===Formatting issues===
{{See also|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Text formatting}}

Modifications in font size, blank space, and color {{crossref|pw=y|(see {{section link||Color coding}})}} are an issue for the Wikipedia site-wide [[Cascading Style Sheets|style sheet]] and should be reserved for special cases only.

Typically, the use of custom font styles:
*reduces consistency, as the text no longer looks uniform;
*reduces usability, as it may be impossible for people with custom style sheets (e.g. for accessibility reasons) to override it, and may clash with a different [[Skin (computing)|skin]] or inconvenience people with color blindness {{crossref|pw=y|(see below)}}; and
*causes disputes, as other editors may disagree aesthetically with the choice of style.

Specify font sizes {{em|relatively}} (for example with <code>font-size: 85%</code>) rather than {{em|absolutely}} (like <code>font-size: 8pt</code>). The resulting font size of any text should not drop below 85% of the page's default font size.

====Color coding====
{{Main|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility#Color}}{{Shortcut|MOS:COLORCODING}}

Do not use color {{em|alone}} to mark differences in text: they may be invisible to people with [[color blindness]] and useless in black-and-white printouts or displays.

Choose colors such as [[maroon|<span style="background: white; color: maroon">maroon</span>]] and [[teal|<span style="background: white; color: teal">teal</span>]] that are distinguishable by readers with the most common form of colorblindness, and {{em|additionally}} mark the differences with change of font or some other means ([[maroon|<span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: maroon; font face: Times New Roman">maroon and alternative font face</span>]], [[teal|<span style="background: white; color: teal">teal</span>]]). Avoid low contrast between text and background colors. See also [[color coding]].

Even for readers with unimpaired color vision, excessive background shading of table entries impedes readability and recognition of Wikilinks. Background color should be used only as a {{em|supplementary}} visual cue and should be subtle (consider using lighter, less-dominant [[Pastel (color)|pastel]] hues) rather than glaring.

====Indentation<span class="anchor" id="INDENT"></span><span class="anchor" id="Indent"></span><span class="anchor" id="indenting"></span>====
{{Shortcut|MOS:INDENT}}
{{Main|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility#Indentation}}

Do not use quotation templates to indent non-quotations. Various templates are available for indentation, including {{tlx|block indent}} to indent an entire block and {{tlx|in5}} to indent inline.

Do not use <code>:</code> ([[description list]] markup) to indent text in articles, even though it is common on talk pages. It causes accessibility problems and outputs invalid HTML. {{crossref|pw=y|See {{section link|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility#Indentation}} for alternatives.}}

To display a mathematical formula in its own indented paragraph, use {{tag|math|params=display="block"}}. See [[Help:Displaying a formula#Block]] for more details.