In the back of one of my favorite foundational typography books, Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton, are a couple of tips for clients providing copy to designers which I find to be useful to both parties so that time is not wasted, work is not doubled, and the workflow remains efficient overall.
- “Writers should not over-format their texts. The more time you spend fiddling with formatting will be spent again by the editor and/or designer, removing extra keystrokes. Provide flush left copy, in one font, double-spaced.”
- “The space bar is not a design tool. Don’t use the space bar to create indents (just key in a single tab), and don’t use extra spaces to create centered effects or layouts (unless you really are E. E. Cummings).”
Providing minimally formatted text which has already been proof-read and approved will do a lot to save time and effort that you and your designer can instead spend making sure your project is exactly what you need.