A caption should not be a mere label, but, like a photograph, should have life and action.  It either should contain a verb of action or should imply one.  In this and other respects, it is not unlike the newspaper headline.  Instead, for example, of the label title, “A Large Gold Dredge in Alaska,” a photograph was given the caption, “Digs Out a Fortune Daily.”  A picture of a young woman feeding chickens in a backyard poultry run that accompanied an article entitled “Did You Ever Think of a Meat Garden?” was given the caption “Fresh Eggs and Chicken Dinners Reward Her Labor.”  To illustrate an article on the danger of the pet cat as a carrier of disease germs, a photograph of a child playing with a cat was used with the caption, “How Epidemics Start.”  A portrait of a housewife who uses a number of labor-saving devices in her home bore the legend, “She is Reducing Housekeeping to a Science.”  “A Smoking Chimney is a Bad Sign” was the caption under a photograph of a chimney pouring out smoke, which was used to illustrate an article on how to save coal.

Longer captions describing in detail the subject illustrated by the photograph, are not uncommon; in fact, as more and more pictures are being used, there is a growing tendency to place a short statement, or “overline,” above the illustration and to add to the amount of descriptive matter in the caption below it.  This is doubtless due to two causes:  the increasing use of illustrations unaccompanied by any text except the caption, and the effort to attract the casual reader by giving him a taste, as it were, of what the article contains.

DRAWINGS FOR ILLUSTRATIONS.  Diagrams, working drawings, floor plans, maps, or pen-and-ink sketches are necessary to illustrate some articles.  Articles of practical guidance often need diagrams.  Trade papers like to have their articles illustrated with reproductions of record sheets and blanks designed to develop greater efficiency in office or store management.  If a writer has a little skill in drawing, he may prepare in rough form the material that he considers desirable for illustration, leaving to the artists employed by the publication the work of making drawings suitable for reproduction.  A writer who has had training in pen-and-ink drawing may prepare his own illustrations.  Such drawings should be made on bristol board with black drawing ink, and should be drawn two or three times as large as they are intended to appear when printed.  If record sheets are to be used for illustration, the ruling should be done with black drawing ink, and the figures and other data should be written in with the same kind of ink.  Typewriting on blanks intended for reproduction should be done with a fresh record black ribbon.  Captions are necessary on the back of drawings as well as on photographs.

MAILING PHOTOGRAPHS AND DRAWINGS.  It is best to mail flat all photographs and drawings up to 8 x 10 in size, in the envelope with the manuscript, protecting them with pieces of stout cardboard.  Only very large photographs or long, narrow panoramic ones should be rolled and mailed in a heavy cardboard tube, separate from the manuscript.  The writer’s name and address, as well as the title of the article to be illustrated, should be written on the back of every photograph and drawing.