Mind Your En And Em Dashes: Typographic Etiquette

#1

Post by mmudassir » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 5:18 PM UTC

Mind Your En And Em Dashes: Typographic Etiquette
smashingmagazine.com

Re: Mind Your En And Em Dashes: Typographic Etiquette

#2

Post by arkitaip » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 5:24 PM UTC

Some of these principles are only applicable to print typography. Also, please don't use fancy dashes or quotation marks as this can cause all kinds of i18n issues when the text is copied or transformed.

Re: Mind Your En And Em Dashes: Typographic Etiquette

#3

Post by Sakes » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 5:38 PM UTC

arkitaip wrote: post #2

Some of these principles are only applicable to print typography. Also, please don't use fancy dashes or quotation marks as this can cause all kinds of i18n issues when the text is copied or transformed.

Which ones do not apply? It seemed like they all applied to the web to me.

Re: Mind Your En And Em Dashes: Typographic Etiquette

#4

Post by rishi » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 5:42 PM UTC

This is one of my favorite articles on typography. A few of my highlights: 1. Use one space after the period. 2. Indent to start a new paragraph (no need to have a blank line and indent). 3. Use smart quotes!

Re: Mind Your En And Em Dashes: Typographic Etiquette

#5

Post by juiceandjuice » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 5:48 PM UTC

Good article, but I'm still going to use two spaces.

Re: Mind Your En And Em Dashes: Typographic Etiquette

#6

Post by mtogo » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 7:13 PM UTC

How pedantic. Two hyphens is a dash, and the "'" character is perfectly usable everywhere you want a single quote or an apostrophe.

Does it really matter how many spaces after a dot one uses, or if dash is really a dash or just two hyphens[1], or how paragraphs are handled? No! Nobody will even notice!

Work on actually getting things done, not adhering to the standard this rag of a publication mindlessly pushes.

[1] As it has been done since the dawn of computing.

Re: Mind Your En And Em Dashes: Typographic Etiquette

#7

Post by bjnortier_hn » Mon, Aug 15, 2011, 10:43 PM UTC

mtogo wrote: post #6

How pedantic. Two hyphens is a dash, and the "'" character is perfectly usable everywhere you want a single quote or an apostrophe. Does it really matter how many spaces after a dot one uses, or if dash is really a dash or just two hyphens[1], or how paragraphs are handled? No! Nobody will even notice! Work on actually getting things done, not adhering to the standard this rag of a publication mindlessly pushes. [1]…

"Nobody will even notice!"

Just because you might not doesn't mean everybody won't.

Re: Mind Your En And Em Dashes: Typographic Etiquette

#8

Post by gulbrandr » Wed, Aug 17, 2011, 10:04 AM UTC

juiceandjuice wrote: post #5

Good article, but I'm still going to use two spaces.

Why?