Rules Of Typography.pdf

1. Insert only a single space after all punctuation.

If you grew up prior to the advent of desktop publishing, chances are you were taught to put two

spaces after periods, question marks, exclamation marks, and colons. The rationale was that it is

easier for the eye to distinguish sentences in this fashion. When using monospaced fonts

(read: typewriter fonts), there might be some validity to this. But this only applied to documents

created with a typewriter. Since the advent of the printing press in the 15th century, typesetters have

never inserted two spaces after punctuation. As far as I can tell, the practice of inserting two spaces

between sentences originated with high school typing teachers. It sure didn’t originate in the world

of typography. I’ve heard the technique referred to as the “French method,” and despite their

admiration for Jerry Lewis, I doubt even the French would adopt such a method. When preparing text

for printing, regardless of the font, use only one space after all punctuation. There are no exceptions

to this.

Well, except one. While not necessary, it is acceptable and often more readable when composing

e-mail (text that will be read online and not printed) to insert two spaces after periods, question

and exclamation marks, and colons.

2. Use proper em and en dashes where appropriate.

Also a throwback to the days of typewriters, two hyphens--like these--were used to make a dash

because true dash characters are not available on a typewriter. But this is a major no-no in

typesetting and desktop publishing, where em dashes—like these—should be used instead.

An em is a unit of measure equal to the point size you are using. For example, using 10-point type,

an em dash would be approximately 10 points (approx. 0.14 inches) wide, but this is dependent

on the individual typeface. Actually, this is probably the widest it would be. Many typefaces have

em dashes that are slightly narrower than a full em, but still considerably wider than a hyphen.

Hyphens are used to hyphenate words and separate phone numbers. They should never be used

as dashes. A dash, more specifically, an em dash, is a form of punctuation used to offset clauses

in a sentence.

An en dash is typically half the length of an em dash (sometimes slightly wider than half, depending

on the typeface) but still longer than a hyphen. En dashes are primarily used to denote duration,

as in 8:00–5:00, or August 12–14, or Aardvark–Adelaide. Some people use them to separate phone

numbers, but I think they are too large and look awkward for this. Compare the en dash in the first

example to the hyphens in the second:

The hyphens appear much more natural. We are used to seeing phone numbers represented in this

fashion. Some people avoid the hyphen vs. en dash question altogether by using periods or spaces to

separate phone numbers:

The period is preferable to the space, but this is purely a matter of personal taste. Phone numbers

separated by spaces are quite common in Europe, less so in the U.S.

When creating em and en dashes, you can add space before and after the dash, or not. I prefer to

add either a small amount of space (usually via the application’s kerning commands), or no space at

all. Page layout programs such as Adobe PageMaker and QuarkXPress let you adjust space between

characters at a micro level (i.e., kerning), as do illustration programs such as Illustrator and

FreeHand, but many word processors are limited in this regard and only allow you to add space via

the Space Bar. The normal space created with the Space Bar seems a bit too wide for my tastes, but

you may find it acceptable. Generally speaking, the wider the column of text, the more space you can

insert before and after dashes (up to a full space). In a typical word processed document such as

a memo or letter, for example, where your column width might be as great as 5 or 6 inches, inserting

a normal space before and after a dash looks just fine. But in a document with narrower columns, say

a newsletter with three columns of text, this much space will stand out, and your dashes will resemble

diving boards. In this case, I would suggest adding no space at all, and simply use the program’s

kerning commands (if available) to tweak the space as necessary.

In PageMaker, press the Cmd key in conjunction with the Left and Right Arrow keys to decrease and

increase kerning (the amount of space between characters) respectively. Hold down the Shift and

Cmd keys if you want to increase or decrease kerning in smaller units. In QuarkXPress, press

Cmd-Shift in conjunction with the Left and Right Bracket keys to kern text. Hold down the Cmd, Shift,

and Option keys if you want to kern in smaller units. In PageMaker, a value of about 0.1 should

suffice; in QuarkXPress, consider a value of about 20 before and after a dash.

If you do add a full space by pressing the Space Bar, it is important to add it before and after the

dash. Sometimes people will add a space after a dash to break a line. Then, if they edit the text or

change the layout, the dash with a space after it but no space before will appear rather awkward

looking.

To create an em dash in most Mac applications, press Shift-Option-hyphen. To create an en dash,

press Option-hyphen.

To create an em dash in most Windows applications, press Alt-0151. To create an en dash, press

Alt-0150.

Some expert font sets contain a three-quarter em dash, but in reality, most em dashes are about this

wide anyway. That is, most em dashes are not one em in width, and depend on the individual

typeface. The three-quarter em dash can be substituted for the em dash. The two are

interchangeable. But it is too wide to be used when you would normally use an en dash.

It is also acceptable to use an en dash instead of an em dash to set off clauses in text. I don’t like the

practice, but it’s not incorrect to do so. If you do substitute en dashes, consider adding space before

and after them.

3. Use true quotation marks and apostrophes.

Quotation marks and apostrophes you enter directly from your keyboard by typing ' and " (Shift + ')

are not really quotation marks, but rather hash marks (or tick marks). It’s okay to use them to

represent feet and inches (e.g., I have a 9'6" Walden surfboard), but using them as quotation marks

sends the message, “I don’t really care how this stuff looks.” Like inserting two spaces between

sentences and using hyphens as dashes (see Rules of Typography: Part I in the FontSite Archives),

using tick marks instead of curly quotes (also called typographer’s quotation marks) is the calling card

of a DTP amateur.

True quotes and apostrophes should be used in place of tick marks whenever possible.

Fortunately, most DTP applications and word processors made within the past few years give you

the option of automatically substituting curly quotes when you type the ' and " characters. This

feature is referred to as Smart Quotes. I use it in all my applications that offer it as an option

(ClarisWorks, PageMaker, QuarkXPress, et al.). Typing the ' and " characters is much easier than

typing Alt-0147 or Cmd-Shift-Bracket, for example.

Punctuation Inside vs. Outside Quotation Marks

There is some debate amongst the various style guides as to whether to place punctuation inside

or outside quotation marks...and whether to use single or double quotes. The American standard is to

place punctuation (commas, periods, etc.) inside the quotation marks. The British standard is to place

them on the outside. The Brits generally use single quotes in place of double quotes too, but this can

pose some minor unsightliness if the text you are quoting ends with a contraction. For example:

See how that ‘t’ is stranded out there? The problem is further compounded by placing punctuation on

the outside. The American method offers an improvement:

It’s not a show-stopper as problems go, but the American system is a bit more clear. It poses fewer

problems on average, but from a typographical standpoint, the rule here is: be consistent. If you like

using single quotation marks in place of double quotation marks, make sure you don’t switch to

double quotation marks in the middle of the document.

Use a closed single quotation mark for apostrophes, such as can’t, Sean’s, or ’tis. It’s amazing the

number of signs, brochures, direct mail pieces, advertisements and other “professional” documents

that don’t follow this rule, using instead the typewriter tick marks.

You create quotation marks with the following keystrokes:

Character

Mac

Windows

Option-]

Alt-0145

Shift-Option-]

Alt-0146

Option-[

Alt-0147

Shift-Option-[

Alt-0148

So what are those ' and " characters?

It is okay to use these characters to represent feet and inches (1' = 12") or minutes and seconds of

arc (60' = 360" = 1° of arc) but better substitutes are available. Using them requires the Symbol font,

which is available on most Macintosh and Windows systems. First select the Symbol font, and then

enter the following:

Character

Mac

Windows

(feet, minutes)

Option-4

Alt-0162

(inches, seconds) Option-Comma

Alt-0178

Compare:

These marks are also known as primes. When using them (especially the standard upright ones that

are available in any font), consider adding a bit of space between the number and the prime with your

application’s kerning commands. If such commands are not an option (as is the case in many word

processors), you’ll have to leave them unspaced. I wouldn’t recommend adding a whole space by

pressing the Space Bar, as this will be too much. The primes available in the Symbol font don’t need

extra spacing in most cases.

4. Use a smaller point size for all-uppercase text.

When entering all-uppercase letters such as titles, acronyms, initials, and other capitalized text

passages — WYSIWYG, BMWRA, USA, or any string of text made up of two or more capital letters —

use a point size that is slightly smaller than the surrounding text. Otherwise, your capitals will

SCREAM at the reader. In text that is 10-point, set the uppercase text to 8.5 points. Of course it

depends on the typeface, but generally a reduction of 1–1.5 points is sufficient for text 11 points and

smaller. A 2-pt or greater reduction may be necessary for text larger than 12 points.

To see how well your CAPITALIZED text looks when you reduce its size, print it and turn the page

upside down. It should blend in. If not, consider reducing the size a little more.

Many programs have a formatting option called Small Caps, which creates a capital letter that is about

70–80% the size of the surrounding text. Unless you can adjust the setting (and in applications such

as PageMaker and QuarkXPress you can), I think this is a tad too small. Just like you don’t want to

draw attention to text that is too big, you also don’t want to draw attention to text that is too small.

An optimal size for small caps is somewhere in the range of 80–90% of the size of the surrounding

text.

Another option is to use true small caps, if they are in fact available. But I often use small cap fonts

for titles only, and not for capitalized text within normal text. Of course, you can use true small caps

in such a fashion, and for fine typography you should. It’s easier, however, to type text from the

regular font in all uppercase and then select it and reduce its point size, than it is to change to the

small cap font, type the text, and then change it back to the regular font. There’s also the added

benefit of using fewer fonts (the fewer fonts in a document, the quicker it will print).

Compare the following four lines of type. The first line was set using Garamond 9-point with no size

reduction and no additional letter spacing for the text in all caps. The second is set using Garamond

9-point with Garamond Small Caps 9-point. Both typefaces are set to the same size, but Garamond

Small Caps looks a bit too small. The third is Garamond 9-point, but the capitalized text was reduced

to 6.5 points (except for the initial ‘T’). This creates an interesting look, but notice how different it is

from the true small caps in the 2nd and 4th paragraphs. The capitalized text appears slightly

condensed. The final line is set using Garamond 9-point with Garamond Small Caps 9.5-point.

If you combine a true small caps typeface with the normal typeface within text, you may need to

increase the size of the small cap slightly (just a half a point in the above example made quite

a noticeable difference.)

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