These standards shall apply to all plats and maps submitted for recordation in the circuit courts of the Commonwealth.

Documents size shall be between 8 ½ X 11 and 18 X 24 inches, and the scale shall be appropriate to the size of the paper. Original plats shall be inscribed on either translucent or opaque paper, polyester or linen. The background quality for opaque paper shall be uniformly white, smooth in finish, unglazed, and free of visible watermarks or background logos. Only the original or a first generation unreduced black or blue line copy of the original plat drawing, which meets the quality inscription standards noted below and has the stamp and original signature of the preparer, shall be submitted for recordation.

A plat prepared prior to 1986 which is being entered as reference can be recorded if the current landowner's notarized signature appears on the plat. Changes or alterations made to any original plat must be accompanied by the stamp and signature of the preparer who did the changes/alterations. Any plats exempted from this chapter under the Code of Virginia can be recorded with the notarized signature of the original preparer.

Color of original inscription shall be black or blue and be solid, uniform, dense, sharp, and unglazed. Signatures shall be in dark blue or black ink. Lettering shall be no less than 1/10 inch or 2.54 mm in height. Lettering and line weight shall be no less than .013 inches or .3302 mm. Letter and line spacing for control pencil drawings shall be no less than .050 inches and for ink drawings no less than .040 inches. The drawing substance must be either wet ink or control pencil but not a combination thereof. Good drafting practices shall be followed when eliminating ghost lines and when doing erasures, and all shading and screening shall be eliminated over written data. Inscriptions shall meet standards established herein, and Engineering Drawing and Related Documentation Practices - Line Conventions and Lettering (ANSI Y14.2M - 1987), Technical Drawing - Lettering - Part I: Currently Used Characters (ISO 309 8/1-1974) Technical Drawings - Sizes and Layout of Drawing Sheets ISO 5457 - 1980 shall be consulted as guidelines.

Margins shall be at least ¼ inch on all sides, and inscriptions are to be made on only one side of the paper. All drawings shall have centering marks on each side, adjacent and outside the margins. Match lines or grid tics delineating 8 ½ X 11 inch sections shall be inscribed on all plats larger than 8 ½ X 11 inches, to create the least number of grid blocks possible and be located adjacent and inside the margins. Continuation sheets of multi-sheet drawings shall be the same size as the first sheet.

Recordation inscriptions shall be by clerk's printed certificate, stamping, typing or handwriting and shall conform to the quality inscription standards noted above.

A first generation copy of an original plat drawing dated prior to July 1, 1986, shall be admitted to record subject to the requirements of 17VAC15-60-20.

Where a plat is submitted as part of an instrument, these plat standards shall apply to such plat.

These standards shall apply to all writings required by law to be recorded and retained permanently in the clerk's office of the circuit courts of the Commonwealth. As noted in the section on exclusions, wills are exempt from the requirements of these standards.

Instruments shall be recorded on paper that is uniformly white, opaque, smooth in finish, unglazed, and free of visible watermarks and background logos. The size of the paper shall be no less than 8 ½ X 11 or larger than 8 ½ X 14 inches. A minimum paper weight of 20 pounds is required. Positive (black on white background) copies may be substituted provided the copies meet the paper and quality inscription standards noted herein, and are microfilmable and capable of producing a legible image from microfilm. Negative (white on black background) and carbon copies are not acceptable.

All inscriptions shall be black and shall be solid, uniform, dense, sharp, and unglazed. Inscriptions are solid when the lines forming each letter do not have blank or light spots, and they are uniform when the entire letter is the same darkness. To be dense, each letter must be dark, and to be sharp, the demarcation between each letter and the background must be abrupt. Inscriptions are unglazed if they are nonreflective. Signatures shall be in dark blue or black ink.

Printing shall be nine point or larger. Typing shall be elite (12 characters per inch) or pica (10 characters per inch) or larger.

A minimum one inch margin shall be provided on the left, top, and bottom margins and one-half inch on the right margin.

Recordation inscriptions shall be by clerk's printed certificate, stamping, typing or handwriting and shall conform to the quality inscription standards noted above.

These standards do not apply to wills, nonpermanent disposable forms, such as Uniform Commercial Code forms, and Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court and General District Court judgments and warrants. Original documents executed prior to July 1, 1986 shall be admitted to record. Where a plat is submitted as part of an instrument, the standards for plats shall apply.

These standards shall apply to instruments submitted for recordation which will be permanently retained by the circuit courts and to any volumes/papers used for recording permanent records in the circuit courts of the Commonwealth.

This standard is intended to be used in conjunction with the following: The American Society for Testing and Materials D3290-81 "Standard Specifications for Bond and Ledger Papers for Permanent Records" and D3208-81 "Standard Specifications for Manifold Papers for Permanent Records" and American National Standards Institute ANSI Z39.49-1984 "Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials" and The Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry T 509 om-83, "Hydrogen Ion Concentration (pH) of Paper Extracts - Cold Extraction Method." When these standards are superseded by a revision, approved by the promulgating organization, the revision shall apply.

The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

"Alkaline reserve" means the presence of a compound (e.g., calcium carbonate) put in the paper at a level sufficient to neutralize acid that might, in the future, be generated from aging of the paper or from atmospheric pollution.

"Groundwood" means pulp produced by mechanically defibering wood without chemical cooking; such pulp contains many substances deleterious to the permanence of paper, notably lignin.

"pH" means the negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion activity in an aqueous solution or the logarithm of the reciprocal of the hydrogen ion activity. Numerically expressed, pH 7 is neutral, lower numbers are acidic, higher numbers are alkaline. The concentration of the free hydrogen ions is expressed as an exponent, so the pH 4 is 10 times more acidic than pH 5 and 100 times more acidic than pH 6.

"Permanence" means, for the purpose of this standard, paper that would last at lease several hundred years without significant deterioration under normal use and storage conditions.

"Uncoated" means, for the purpose of this standard, paper that is composed of fiber plus fillers, sizing, dyes, and the like, but with no surface coating in excess of 2.5 pounds per side for every 500 sheets measuring 25 inches by 38 inches.

Uncoated permanent paper shall meet all of the following minimum requirements:

1. pH. Minimum pH of 7.5 in accordance with the cold extraction method described in Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry T 509 om-83, "Hydrogen Ion Concentration (pH) of Paper Extracts - Cold Extraction Method."

2. Alkaline reserve. Minimum alkaline reserve equivalent to 2.0% calcium carbonate based on oven dry weight of the paper.

3. Paper stock. The paper shall include no groundwood or unbleached pulp.

4. Minimum paper weight of 24 pound is required of records being held or reproduced in book form for permanent retention/use in the recording office.