• Formalin vs. other fixative vs. without fixative (“fresh”)
• Patient’s name, medical record number, tissue type or site.
• If designation is not present on the container label, indicate as such

• Organ or tissue type and, if applicable, each part.
• Call an organ by its name unless it is not recognizable as such.
• Include procedure if applicable
• Indicate clinician's ink, specimen orientation by suture or ink.

• Measure specimens in metric units in 3 dimensions (2 if cylindrical or flat), from largest to smallest dimension unless specifying which dimension
• Weight in metric units:  uterus, endocrine, breast reduction, spleen, kidney, liver, lung, heart, prostate, testis, pituitary, brain, ovarian tumor, others if requested by surgeon).
• For cystic lesions, weigh before emptying the contents.

• Shape or configuration:  round, spherical, ovoid, elliptical, cylindrical, rectangular, irregular, polypoid, exophytic, endophytic, gyriform, ulcerated, heaped-up, raised, flat, linear, whorled, bulging, multiloculated, cystic, vesicular, globular etc.
• It is acceptable to say “of the usual shape” when dealing with an entire organ
• Color:  red, tan-brown, red-purple to brown-black, transparent, hemorrhagic etc.
• Texture:  smooth, rough, soft, firm, bony, mucoid, friable, rubbery, necrotic, grumous, fluid, consolidated, dry etc.
• Odor:  only if obvious (don’t routinely sniff specimens, especially if in formalin); rancid, burnt etc.
• Indicate frozen section tissue (FS1A or FSA1)
• State if entirely submitted or representatively submitted
• Gross only specimens:  mention identifying inscriptions

Indicate the ink location (where you have applied it) and the color.  It is highly desirable to consistently ink the specimen in terms of color in relation to specimen orientation.  Below is a recommended color scheme:.

• Blue for superior (sky above is blue)
• Green for inferior (grass below is green)
• Black for posterior or deep  (deep and away from the light is back)
• Red for medial aspect (where the heart is close)
• Yellow for anterior (well-lit and bright)
• Orange for lateral (by default)

When only 2 or 3 colors are needed, black, blue and orange are preferred.

Specify study by microbiology, flow cytometry, electron microscopy, cytogenetics, molecular studies, frozen tissue bank, photography, touch preps, decalcification

• Label each cassette with a number or letter, or combination of both depending on the lab's designation system
• Indicate the content of each cassette, esp. if it is a resection margin or frozen section remnant.
• Specify how many pieces of specimen in each cassette.
• Summarize the total number of cassettes / blocks
• Indicate special studies and designate those cassettes

       1A = proximal resection margin, 1 piece

       1B = distal resection margin, 2 pieces

       1C = mass lesion, for DiPAS stain, plus 10 unstained for immunohistochemistry

       ... ...

       B1 =  lymph node, bisected, frozen section remnant

       Total 4 blocks, 4 H&E, 1 DiPAS, and 1 CK20, 1 CK7, 1 ErBP4, 1 Calretinin