Rules Of Typography, Książki, Książki

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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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Rules Of Typography, Książki, Książki

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