What font does the Texas Uniform Format Manual require?

None by name. The manual requires a pitch of 9 or 10 characters per inch and a font that is 'mixed uppercase and lowercase and clearly legible.' Courier is the near-universal choice because 12-point Courier is exactly 10 pitch, but Courier itself is convention, not rule.

Stenobox Guides · Texas · Page format

Texas Transcript Format: What the Uniform Format Manual Requires — and Who Is Allowed to Report

Q: What format must a Texas transcript follow?

The Uniform Format Manual for Texas Reporters' Records, adopted by Supreme Court of Texas order effective July 1, 2010, governs official court records and, unless otherwise stated, freelance records — depositions included. It requires an 8½×11 page with 25 lines of text numbered 1 through 25, double spaced, a text column of at least 6½ inches (56 to 63 characters at the required 9-or-10 pitch), a drawn 'format box' border on every page with the line numbers to its left, and the page number at the top right. Noncompliance can mean redoing the record at the preparer's expense and professional discipline.

Q: How many lines and characters per page is a Texas transcript?

25 lines of text per page, numbered 1 through 25, double spaced. The distance between the left and right marginal lines must be at least 6½ inches — between 56 and 63 characters per line at the manual's required pitch of 9 or 10 characters per inch. Volumes are capped at 300 pages.

Q: Can a digital court reporter work in Texas?

Texas is the strictest big state on this question. Certification covers only written shorthand, machine shorthand, and oral stenography — no digital or electronic category exists — and all depositions conducted in Texas must be reported by a certified shorthand reporter unless a statutory exception applies, chiefly the unavailability affidavit under Government Code section 154.112 or recording arranged by a party under Rule of Civil Procedure 199.1(c). Uncertified shorthand reporting is a Class A misdemeanor, with each day a separate offense. A 2025 bill merely to study digital court reporting passed the Texas Senate but never received a House vote.

Q: What must a Texas reporter's certificate say?

The certification page goes on the last page of each volume and identifies who is responsible for the record's cost. The official model certificate certifies a true and correct transcription, is signed over the reporter's Texas CSR number and the certificate's expiration date, and is not notarized. Deposition certificates additionally follow Rule of Civil Procedure 203.2, which requires — among other elements — a statement of the amount of time used by each party at the deposition.

Published July 31, 2026 · Sources: the Uniform Format Manual for Texas Reporters' Records (Supreme Court of Texas Misc. Docket No. 10-9077), Texas Government Code chapters 52 and 154, Texas Rules of Civil and Appellate Procedure, and the Judicial Branch Certification Commission rules — quoted directly

Quick answer: Texas puts its entire transcript format in one document — the Uniform Format Manual for Texas Reporters' Records — and gives it teeth: a defective record can be redone at the preparer's expense. The page is 8½ × 11 with 25 numbered, double-spaced lines and a text column of at least 6½ inches (56–63 characters), drawn inside a mandatory "format box" border with the line numbers outside it. The indents are rule text, not house style: Q. and A. on the fifth space, their text on the tenth, speakers in CAPS on the fifteenth — and wrapped lines return to the left margin. The part most format guides skip: Texas certifies only stenographic reporters, and reporting without certification is a Class A misdemeanor.

One manual, real teeth

Where Michigan splits its conventions between a manual and field practice, and California hides its statewide rule behind a famous local one, Texas consolidated everything in 2010. The Uniform Format Manual for Texas Reporters' Records ("UFM") was adopted by order of the Supreme Court of Texas — Misc. Docket No. 10-9077, amended by No. 10-9113 — effective July 1, 2010, and that edition is still the governing version listed by the state's Judicial Branch Certification Commission. Its scope line covers more than court records:

"…the following Uniform Format Manual for Texas Reporters' Records governs the form of Official Reporters' Records and, unless otherwise stated, Freelance Reporters' Records, in paper and electronic format." UFM, Preface (2010)

A "Freelance Reporter's Record" is defined as all transcriptions by a freelance reporter other than official court records — which puts depositions squarely inside the manual. And unlike Florida's forgiving rule, the UFM is enforced. The Preface warns that on a flagrant violation a court may require the reporter to

"…amend or prepare a new record in proper form -- and provide it to any party who has been provided a copy of the defective record -- at the preparer's expense." UFM, Preface — with discipline through the certification board as a further consequence; repeated in the joint Supreme Court/Court of Criminal Appeals order at Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure Appendix C, Rule 2(f)

The Texas page, by the numbers

Item	Requirement	UFM section
Paper	"Each page must be formatted as 8½ x 11 inches."	§ 2.1
Pitch	"The pitch (characters per inch) must be 9 or 10." No font family is named — the font must simply be mixed-case and "clearly legible." Courier is convention (12-point Courier is exactly 10 pitch), not rule.	§§ 2.3–2.4
Text width	"…no less than six and one-half (6½") inches or between fifty-six (56) and sixty-three (63) spaces or characters per line," text set one character inside each marginal line, right margin ragged (not justified). Texas fixes a minimum text width; the margins are whatever is left.	§ 2.5
Format box	"A format box consisting of solid top, bottom, left, and right marginal lines is required" — a drawn border on every page. Texas is the rare state whose page literally wears a frame.	§ 2.6
Line numbers	"The line numbers 1-25 must be placed to the left of the format box" — outside the border.	§ 2.12
Lines per page	"Each page of transcription must contain 25 lines of text, numbered 1 through 25, double spaced," with administrative pages (title, appearances, index, certificate) exempt "where appropriate." Headers, footers, and the page number don't count as lines.	§ 2.13
Blank lines	Prohibited, except a witness setup carrying to the next page, administrative pages, or on counsel's request.	§ 2.14
Page number	Top right corner, flush with the right margin, inside or outside the box.	§ 2.16
Volumes	No more than 300 pages; exhibits in separate volumes; multi-volume records get a Master Index that is always Volume 1.	§§ 6.3, 6.4, 3.23

The indents are law, not house style

Most states leave indentation to convention. Texas wrote it into the manual as mandatory tab stops:

"Three tab settings are required for use on all transcriptions. The first tab setting must be on the fifth space from the left text margin. The second tab setting must be on the tenth space from the left text margin. The third tab setting must be the fifteenth space from the left text margin." UFM § 2.10

Section 2.11 assigns them: the first tab is for Q. or A., the second for the text that follows the designation, and the third for speaker identification "followed directly by a colon and two spaces," for new paragraphs, and for parentheticals. Then comes the detail that surprises reporters trained anywhere else: "All subsequent lines must return to the left margin." A wrapped question or answer does not hang under its text — it goes back flush left. Only multi-line parentheticals stay block-indented at the fifteenth space.

Three more conventions worth knowing, all from the manual:

The period after Q and A is optional (§ 2.7), and quotation marks are optional on quoted material (§ 2.8) — two things most house styles treat as settled that Texas deliberately leaves open.
Interruptions use dashes: "Interruptions of speech must be denoted by the use of dashes ( -- ) at the point of interruption, and again at the point the speaker resumes speaking" (§ 2.9) — the same double-dash convention we survey in our repeated-words guide.
Speakers are identified in capital letters, last name only unless two attorneys share a gender and surname (§ 3.22), with the familiar THE COURT / THE WITNESS / THE INTERPRETER designations.

Stricter verbatim than the certified mainstream

The UFM's transcription rules leave less discretion than the federal courts allow. The record "must contain all English words and other verbal expressions uttered during the course of the proceedings" (§ 3.8); grammatical errors and misstatements are "transcribed as spoken" (§ 3.15); expressions like "Uh-huh" and "Huh-uh" are transcribed accordingly (§ 3.9); and no portion of a proceeding may be omitted on a request or an order to strike (§ 3.14). Notably, the manual grants no license to drop filler sounds — where the federal Guide to Judiciary Policy expressly authorizes omitting "uh" (see our uh/um survey), Texas's text simply never does. A reporter producing a strict UFM record keeps everything.

The certificate: CSR number and expiration date, no notary

Certification goes on the last page of each volume, and the certificate in the final volume must identify who is responsible for the record's cost (§ 3.3). The official model certificate — Figure 5 of the manual's published figures — certifies "a true and correct transcription," and its signature block is distinctive: the reporter signs over their name, "Texas CSR ####," and the certificate's expiration date, with address and phone. The venue caption at the top ("THE STATE OF TEXAS / COUNTY OF ___") is style, not a jurat — the reporter's certificate is not notarized.

Deposition certificates answer to a second authority. Rule of Civil Procedure 203.2 requires a sworn officer's certificate stating, among other elements, that the witness was duly sworn, that the transcript is a true record, the officer's charges — and one element with no Michigan or federal counterpart:

"(e) the amount of time used by each party at the deposition;" Tex. R. Civ. P. 203.2 — the official model shows it as a per-lawyer hours-and-minutes table

Who may report: the strictest big state

Here is the part a formatting guide can't honestly skip, because in Texas the format question comes second. Certification — issued by the Supreme Court of Texas itself on the certification commission's recommendation — exists for exactly three methods: written shorthand, machine shorthand, and oral stenography (plus a catchall for any other method the Supreme Court authorizes, which it has not exercised for digital recording). There is no digital or electronic reporting certification in Texas, and the commission's current rules repeat the same three methods.

The consequences are concrete:

All depositions conducted in Texas "must be reported by a certified shorthand reporter" (Government Code § 154.101(f)), with two main exceptions: an unavailability lane — a non-certified person may report only after an affidavit or on-record stipulation that no certified reporter is available (§ 154.112) — and recording arranged by a party, the party's attorney, or their full-time employee (§ 154.114; Rule of Civil Procedure 199.1(c) separately allows party-arranged non-stenographic recording on five days' notice).
Uncertified shorthand reporting is a Class A misdemeanor, and "Each day of violation constitutes a separate offense" (§ 154.113). Even the titles "court reporter," "shorthand reporter," and "court recorder" are protected (§ 154.101(e)).
In-court electronic recording exists only where the two high courts have approved a specific court's local rules — a short list of district and county courts — and a 2020 Attorney General opinion (KP-0318) concluded a judge may not appoint a court recorder in lieu of the official court reporter the statute requires.
Reform is at the study stage, and stalled: a 2025 bill directing the Office of Court Administration merely to study digital court reporting (S.B. 1538) passed the Texas Senate in May 2025 but never received a House vote, per the Legislature's own action history.

If Florida is the most digital-friendly rulebook in the country — we've quoted it — Texas is its mirror image. One modern touch: a certified reporter may administer the oath remotely without being in the room with the witness (§ 154.105(b)).

Billing: the page has a shape, not a price

Texas defines the page's dimensions in the UFM but sets no statutory page rate — unlike Michigan's per-page statute. Government Code § 52.047 gives the framework: a requested transcript is due within 120 days; if the fee is disputed, "the judge shall determine a reasonable fee"; and additional copies are capped at one-third of the original cost per page — a statute that presupposes per-page pricing while leaving the page's price to the market. One more Texas-only comfort for reporters: the attorney who takes a deposition, and their firm, are jointly and severally liable for the reporter's charges (§ 52.059).

What this means for a working reporter

Every Texas transcript, court or deposition: 8½ × 11, 25 numbered double-spaced lines, 56–63 characters across at least 6½ inches of text width, inside a drawn format box with line numbers to its left and the page number top right; volumes capped at 300 pages.
Set the three tabs and forget hanging indents: Q./A. at the fifth space, their text at the tenth, CAPS speaker names at the fifteenth plus a colon and two spaces — and every wrapped line returns to the left margin.
Keep everything: all words uttered, errors as spoken, stricken material included — with no filler-dropping license in the manual's text.
The certificate carries your CSR number and its expiration date, unnotarized; deposition certificates add Rule 203.2's elements, including time used per party.
Certification is the gate: depositions belong to certified shorthand reporters unless a statutory exception applies, and uncertified reporting is criminal — the licensure landscape here is the opposite of Florida's.

Primary sources

Uniform Format Manual for Texas Reporters' Records (effective July 1, 2010) — page geometry §§ 2.1–2.19, tab stops §§ 2.10–2.11, transcription rules §§ 3.8–3.24, volumes §§ 6.2–6.4
Supreme Court of Texas, Misc. Docket No. 10-9077 — the adopting order
Judicial Branch Certification Commission — Uniform Format Manual page (confirms the current edition)
Texas Government Code ch. 154 — certification, methods, the deposition mandate, penalties
Texas Government Code ch. 52 — official reporters, transcript fees, deposition-charge liability
Texas Rules of Civil Procedure — Rules 199.1(c), 203.2, 203.6
JBCC Rules (current edition) — Rule 6.2(a)(1) certification methods
Texas Attorney General Opinion KP-0318 (2020)

Common questions

What format must a Texas transcript follow?

The Uniform Format Manual for Texas Reporters' Records — one manual for official court records and freelance records alike, depositions included, enforceable by a redo at the preparer's expense and professional discipline.

How many lines and characters per page is a Texas transcript?

25 numbered, double-spaced lines per page, with a text column of at least 6½ inches — 56 to 63 characters per line at the required 9-or-10 pitch — and a 300-page cap per volume.

What font does the Texas manual require?

None by name. The rule is the pitch — 9 or 10 characters per inch — plus mixed case and legibility. Courier is the convention because 12-point Courier is exactly 10 pitch.

Can a digital court reporter work in Texas?

Not as the certified reporter of record: Texas certifies only stenographic methods, depositions require a certified shorthand reporter unless a statutory exception applies (chiefly the unavailability affidavit), and uncertified reporting is a Class A misdemeanor. A 2025 bill to study digital reporting died without a House vote.

What must a Texas reporter's certificate say?

A certification of a true and correct transcription on each volume's last page, identifying who pays for the record, signed over the reporter's Texas CSR number and its expiration date — unnotarized. Deposition certificates add Rule 203.2's sworn elements, including the amount of time used by each party.

This guide reports a court-adopted manual, statutes, and rules for general information, quoted from the versions current when published. How these provisions apply to any particular reporter's work is a question for a Texas attorney or the certifying authorities. This is not legal advice.

Formatting, handled: Stenobox turns court and deposition audio into a court-formatted draft — Q&A designations, speaker labels, dates and numbers by the book — with every doubtful word flagged and linked to its moment in the audio, so you verify instead of rebuild. See how it works or start a free trial.

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