Standard Page
A standard page (NS) is a standardised page of 1 800 characters including spaces. It is defined in STN EN ISO 690.
You calculate the number of standard pages by taking the number of characters in the text and dividing by 1 800.
Example: The text has 20 000 characters including spaces. The calculation is therefore: 20 000 / 1800 = 11.1 standard pages.
The number of words per standard page usually ranges from 250 to 300 words, depending on the average number of characters per word.
Use of a standard page
The standard page is used to measure the length of text in journalism, translation, copywriting and other text-related work. It is also used in academia for bachelor and master theses.
Example. The student has to hand in a thesis of a set number of standard pages, etc.
Standard pages in the world
In Slovakia and the Czech Republic, a standard page has 1800 characters.
The defined character range of a standard page may vary around the world according to custom or local legislation.
Therefore, when using it in the world, it is a good idea to find out the exact definition of the standard page for the area.
How to find out count of characters and words in MS Word?
In MS Word, the most widely used word processor, finding out the number of characters, words and therefore standard pages is very easy.
- Open the document whose text you want to count in Word (if you want to count only a part, select only the required text).
- On the Review tab in the section Proofing, click on the icon Word Count.
- The text statistics will then be displayed.
- To get the number of standard pages, divide the "number of characters (including spaces)" by 1800.
Scope of the thesis
The scope of the thesis is one of the basic requirements universities impose on their students.
This scope is usually also expressed in terms of the number of standard pages.
To calculate the scope of the thesis, the text is used, from the beginning of the chapter "Introduction", to the end of the chapter "Conclusion". Thus, chapters such as 'abstract', 'bibliography', 'table of contents' or 'acknowledgements' are not included in the scope.
In Slovakia, the following scopes apply to theses:
- A bachelor thesis is between 30 - 40 standard pages (54 - 72 thousand characters).
- A thesis is between 50 - 70 standard pages (90 - 126 thousand characters).
- The dissertation is between 80-120 standard pages (144-216 thousand characters).
The above ranges are according to the guidelines of the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. Therefore, these ranges may vary at other universities. However, they are usually very similar or identical.
It is therefore a good idea to check the ranges for the thesis according to your university guidelines.