Fact · Dictation for work and study
The AHIMA and MTIA 2007 report says that the 65-character line counted all letters, numbers, symbols and formatting codes used to produce a document.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“characters included all letters, numbers, symbols, and formatting codes used to maintain and reproduce a document”
Visible Black Character as the Unit of Text Measurement: AHIMA/MTIA Joint Task Force Report, AHIMA/MTIA Joint Task Force on Standards Development, American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA), 2007, Background.
Open the original- What it measures
- Under the 65-character rule, a transcription line was a fixed count of characters, so formatting could change how many lines a report produced.
- What it does not show
- The report describes the older method and does not say how any particular vendor counted lines in practice.