65 character line
We define a line as 65 characters, as defined to include includes the text of the report, all header and footer information, function keys and other keystrokes such as space bar, tab, carriage return, underscore, bold, etc., as well as those characters used to identify dictation demographics. There are typically ten 65-character lines in every minute of single speaker audio. The 65-character line standard is highly accurate, because it is independent of page setup, speed of dictation or font used.
For example, if you dictated "Dear Mr Jones" we would count that as 13 characters (spaces between words are included) or one fifth of a line, and not one line even though this would appear as a separate line in the report. This usually results in a cost-savings of 30% over the "gross line" standard where every line on a page is counted separately whether the line contains two words or seven words.
Legaltranscribe.com uses an automated system for counting lines in all its reports. The total number of keystrokes contained within the document is divided by 65 and rounded to the next integer to determine the number of lines in the document. Our line counts are easily verifiable and our clients have the greatest confidence in the accuracy of our line counts.
