style

Source: https://developers.google.com/style

About this guide #

Stay organized with collections

Save and categorize content based on your preferences.

• Home
• Products
• Style

Page Summary #

• This style guide helps you write clear and consistent technical documentation for software developers and other technical practitioners.
• Refer to project-specific guidelines first, then this guide, and finally third-party references like Merriam-Webster or the Chicago Manual of Style for questions.
• While this guide offers recommendations, prioritize clarity and consistency for your specific domain and readers, even if it means deviating from the guidelines.
• For Android or Google Cloud specific guidelines, look for the respective platform logos within the documentation.

This style guide helps you write clear and consistent technical documentation for software developers and other technical practitioners.

Refer to project-specific guidelines first, then this guide, and finally third-party references like Merriam-Webster or the Chicago Manual of Style for questions.

While this guide offers recommendations, prioritize clarity and consistency for your specific domain and readers, even if it means deviating from the guidelines.

For Android or Google Cloud specific guidelines, look for the respective platform logos within the documentation.

This style guide provides editorial guidelines for writing clear and consistent technical

documentation for an audience of software developers and other technical practitioners.

If you're new to the guide and looking for introductory topics about our style, then start with

Highlights, Voice and tone, and

Text-formatting summary. Otherwise, use the guide as

a reference document for specific questions. For example, you can look up terms in the

word list.

Editorial resources #

We recommend using the following editorial resources.

Reference hierarchy #

Use the following references, including this guide, in this order:

• Project-specific style. Follow style guidance specific to your project or product, such

as necessary exceptions to this guide or terms that are relevant only to your product.

• This style guide. If project-specific style guidelines don't provide explicit

guidance, then follow this guide.

• Third-party references. If the preceding references don't provide explicit guidance,

then see these third-party references, depending on the nature of your question:

Type of question

Third-party reference

Spelling

Follow Merriam-Webster.com.

See also Spelling.

Nontechnical style

Follow The

Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition (subscription required).

Technical style

See the

Microsoft

Writing Style Guide. But consider whether Microsoft's guidance applies; some of it

might apply only to Microsoft products and interfaces.

This style guide. If project-specific style guidelines don't provide explicit

guidance, then follow this guide.

[Table omitted - see original]

At multiple stages of this hierarchy, it can be helpful to look to established usage. For

example, search your organization's documentation, or check a broad language corpus such

as Google Ngram Viewer.

Other editorial resources #

You can use additional resources to research and inform your thinking, but don't consider them

part of Google developer documentation style.

Here are some other style guides from the tech community:

• Apple Style Guide
• Red Hat supplementary style guide for product documentation

Annotations used in this guide #

For guidance that applies only to Android or Google Cloud documentation, look for the following

logos:

• precedes terms and guidelines specific to Android

documentation.

• precedes terms and guidelines specific to Google Cloud

documentation.

Break the rules #

—George Orwell,

"Politics and the English Language"

This guide contains guidelines, not rules. Depart from it when doing so improves your

content.

For example, if we recommend spelling a term as one word, and you determine that the

hyphenated version of a term in your domain is more appropriate for your readers, then

it's fine to use that instead. We acknowledge that sometimes there are competing forms

of the same word in wide use, especially as new terms emerge, and you might have good

reasons for departing from our guidance.

When you depart from this guide, be consistent throughout your document.