Check out my meticulously edited captions in the first issue of M.
I’m starting to proof layouts for the next issue of M Music & Musicians, and one of my most common fixes is on photo captions. Magazines have varying styles when it comes to punctuating captions, but I like to follow a simple rule. If the caption is a complete sentence — “Green Day performed at the 2010 Grammys with the cast of American Idiot.” — it should have a period. But if it’s not a full sentence — “Green Day at the 2010 Grammys” — leave the period off. Sometimes people see this and cry, “Inconsistent!” because some captions have periods and others don’t. But I think it’s the lesser of several evils.
