Fact · Dictation for work and study
In the 2007 AHIMA and MTIA visible black character method, spaces, carriage returns and hidden formatting such as bolding, underline and spell checking are not counted.
Checked against its source on October 17, 2026
In the source's own words
“spaces, carriage returns, and hidden formatting instructions such as bolding, underline, text boxes, printer configurations, and spell checking are not counted in the total character count”
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, Definition of Visible Black Character.
Open the original- What it measures
- The task force proposed visible black characters, which are characters a reader can see on the page, as the unit for medical transcription billing. The 65-character line counted formatting codes, so the two methods can give different counts for the same report.
- What it does not show
- This is the task force's 2007 proposal. The report does not show that the method was adopted by most employers, and we did not find a current industry standard that replaced the 65-character line.