Type Tips A Basic Guide to the Typographic Standards Practiced in the United States This book belongs to Nicole Holmes
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his booklet is a basic guide to typographic style and provides type users with some of the primary tenets of fine typography. It is limited in scope, intended for quick reference, and was not designed to cover all the rules of typography that have been developed over the last 550 years. When working for any company or organization that has its own set of guidelines, their guidelines take precedence over these. Also, the typographic designer is responsible for judging the context in which a text is set and should break any of the rules in this booklet rather than do something that will either confuse the reader or cause misunderstanding.
The standards of usage and aesthetics for designing with type presented here have been compiled and written by Rod McDonald and Mark Jamra. They were edited and checked for accuracy by members of the sota board of directors. The reference works on the following page were frequently consulted in this process.
The Associated Press Stylebook. Norman Goldstein, editor. 42nd edition. New York: Basic Books, 2007. Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style. Version 3.0. Point Roberts, Washington: Hartley & Marks, Publishers, 2004. The Chicago Manual of Style. Fifteenth edition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003. Eckersley, R., Ellertson, C.M., Angstadt, R., Hendel, R. Glossary of Typesetting Terms. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995. Felici, James. The Complete Manual of Typography. Berkeley: Adobe Press/Peach Pit Press, 2003. Hale, C. and Scanlon, J. Wired Style. Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age. New York: Broadway Books, 1999. Strizver, Ilene. Type Rules: the Designer‚ A Guide to Professional Typography. Second edition. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2006.
Definitions Ampersand (&) The correct use of the ampersand is in company names (Smith & Jones), in initialisms (r&d, q&a) and in book and movie titles. It is sometimes used in other contexts for deliberate graphic effect, but it should not be used generally as an abbreviation for the word and. Apostrophe (’) Used in contractions to replace omitted letters, e.g. don’t, rock ’n’ roll; and the first two numbers of a year in informal contexts, e.g. class of ’07. (Check that it has not been converted to ‘07 by word processing applications that read it as an opening single quote.) Do not use to pluralize numerals or abbreviations (1960s, MDs) except where ambiguity may arise, e.g., the a’s in a font, md’s. Never use the prime or typewriter single quote (') as an apostrophe (nor vice-versa). At (@) The old commercial “at” sign has a new use in email addresses and is set there with no word spaces on either side. It has no role in normal text
Block Quotations See Quoted Text and Extracts Capitals Words in full capitals are often improved in readability and appearance if set with a little more character spacing. If possible, words in caps should not appear in text settings; small caps are preferred.
NOTHING (default) NOTHING (more space) Column Width (Measure) Whenever possible, the column width is established for maximum text readability. Research and opinions differ over the optimal character count per line of text, but the average would have it falling between 50 and 70 characters (including word spaces), with the optimal medium at around 60. Readability is augmented if line spacing (leading) is increased as the column width is widened. Copyright (©) Precedes the copyright holder’s name, or the date of publication, with sufficient space between. Sometimes, this space must be added by the type user. Diphthongs (Æ, æ, Œ, Œ) Two joined vowels. Used in Norwegian, Danish and French, and occasionally in registered trade names. Never use as a common ligature.
D
rop Cap Initials are measured by the number of lines of type they occupy. This is a threeline drop cap. They are especially effective in
maintaining a formal structure in multiple column settings, such as magazines. The baseline of the drop cap should align with a baseline of the body copy. Ellipsis (...) A mark of omission consisting of three dots; this is a single character in fonts with full complements. If the dots in this character appear too tight, it is acceptable to use three periods tracked out to visually harmonize with a given typographic situation. Em Dash (—) Used to indicate a sudden break in thought, an amplification or explanation, or a sudden change in sentence structure. Never use an Em dash with either a colon or semicolon. Some people feel that the Em dash, as found in some fonts, creates too large of a hole in text and prefer to use the En dash with added space on each side instead. Historically, the term Em referred to the point size of the font; it is the longest dash available in a standard character complement. Never set two hyphens in place of an Em dash. En Dash (–) Represents a range, particularly the word to when used between figures, but not if the figures are preceded by the word from, e.g. 1929–32, or, from 1929 to 1932. Adjust the vertical positioning of this symbol according to context. (See illustration under Vertical Position.) The length of the En dash is between that of the hyphen and the Em dash.
Figures Old style figures (0123456789) are designed to work in text and should be used with lowercase and small caps when they are available. Proportional lining figures (0123456789) should be used in most other contexts. Tabular figures (default figures in most fonts) are made to line up vertically in tables and columns. In text matter, descriptive numbers of ten and under should be spelled out, although specific house styles should have precedence here. Various editorial styles may call for the spelling of higher numbers except when they refer to specific sequences, e.g. The book had eighty pages and on page 64.... If a sentence begins with a number, it should be spelled out. Use the minimum number of figures in date ranges and separate them with an En dash, e.g. 1455–70. Use small caps as in 510 bc (or bce) and ad 114. It is acceptable to use them without periods in this context. Percent should be spelled out where it occurs singly in text matter and when used in conjunction with a written number, e.g. eighteen percent. The symbol % should be used with figures, e.g. 18%. When figures are preceded by the dollar sign and there are no cents, the decimal point and zeros may be omitted, if kept consistent throughout the text. In columns, figures with decimals align vertically on the decimal; otherwise figures should right align.
Footnotes References in the text to footnotes should be in superior figures. When numbering the footnotes themselves, use normal old style or lining figures in the size of the footnotes. Footnotes are normally set one or two points smaller than the text. When very few footnotes are present, a commonly used sequence of reference marks (*, †, ‡, §) may be used instead of figures. Fractions When made from lining figures the fraction can be confused with the full-size figure (left). Fractions made by various design software avoid that particular confusion but are too light (center). If available in the font, use properly drawn fractions (right).
1 1/4 1 1/4 11/4 Heading Material Break headings by sense and appearance. Conjunctions or prepositions seldom need to occupy single lines; sense and form are usually served by attaching them to their respective clauses. Hanging Punctuation (Optical Alignment ) Quotation marks or terminal punctuation which occur at the beginning of a line or the end of a line of justified copy often look best when set outside of the column width into the margin so that the text appears more aligned on the left and right axes. The ability to do this easily is offered by only a couple of software applications and is included in “optical margin alignment.”
Hyphenation A hyphen (-) is used to indicate that part of a word at the end of a line is carried over to the next line. Leave at least three characters behind and take at least three characters forward, although it’s okay to take only two characters forward in narrow work. Wherever possible, try to avoid having consecutive hyphenated lines in text. In justified settings, break words so that the part left at the end of the line suggests the whole word, e.g., starvation not star-vation. Avoid breaks that may confuse or alter meaning, e.g., exact-ing, not ex-acting. Check standard dictionaries for the proper division of words. In flush-left (left-aligned), ragged-right settings, it is often better to break words rather than have overly uneven line endings. Avoid hyphenation in headlines and display settings. Never hyphenate numerals, single-syllable words or url’s. See url’s and Email Addresses. Never letterspace lower case text in order to justify text. If possible, avoid breaking a word at the bottom of a page, at the end of a column or in the last full line of a paragraph. Indents If using indents to indicate new paragraphs, do not use extra leading between paragraphs. The first line of the first paragraph, or of any paragraph follow-
ing a head, subhead or line space need not be indented. All following paragraphs should be indented at least one em of the type size. Italic Used for mild emphasis of important terms in text as well as references to book titles, magazines and periodicals, plays, operas, ballets, films, radio and television programs, works of art, and names of ships. The definite or indefinite article (the, a) should be italicized if part of the title. Kerning The addition or subtraction of space between two letters. Used to adjust letter combinations that create unsightly gaps or dark spots in text matter, and to fine tune letter spacing in headlines. A professional quality digital font contains kerning data for problematic letter combinations, but additions and fine tuning are often still necessary. Check kerning around dashes, slashes, italic-to-regular font changes, and between initials and periods.
Tel. for You (unkerned) Tel. for You (kerned) Leading See Line Spacing. Ligatures (fi, fl, ff, ffi, ffl) Two or more letters joined together to form a single glyph. Ligatures are designed to help improve the appearance of problematic let-
ter combinations. The fi and fl are the only ligatures in most basic character complements; others are available in either expert sets or custom fonts. OpenType fonts usually have a full set. The standard ligatures listed above should be used wherever possible to improve the appearance of text. Ligatures in tracked-out text are distracting because of their fixed spacing. Decorative, historical and discretionary ligatures (e.g. ct, st, sp) may be used in appropriate contexts. Ligatures are not supported on the web.
first first
flag flag office office
Line Length Varies if text is set flush-left, but not if set justified within the set measure or column width. Take this into consideration when determining the average character count per line. Line Spacing Also referred to as “Leading” (rhymes with “heading”). For body copy, it is best to add a minimum of 2 points of line spacing, e.g. 10-point type on 12 points (the distance between the baselines of text), up to a maximum of 5 points. Display matter, including full caps, may be set with less or even negative line spacing. A wider line length will call for more line spacing. A typeface with a large x-height will also require more line spacing. Measure See Column Width.
Parentheses, Brackets and Braces Parentheses are used for author’s explanations, insertions and references. Square brackets are used for references to other works, source material or editorial comments. If parentheses occur within parentheses, the inner pair should be brackets and the outer pair parentheses. Parentheses and brackets should be set in the font –roman or italic– of the surrounding text, not in that of the material they enclose. Braces are used primarily in the setting of mathematics.
(Parentheses) [Brackets] {Braces} Phone Numbers While traditionally set with the area code in parentheses and a hyphen between the exchange and individual number, the numbers may now be separated by periods or word spaces. It may be prudent to still set the area code of international phone numbers in parentheses for clarity where readers may not be familiar with another country’s phone number configuration. Quotations Always use typographically correct (“curly” or “smart”) quotation marks. Never use the vertical marks commonly referred to as foot and inch marks; these originated with the typewriter. When a quotation falls within a quotation use double quotes outside and single quotes inside. Where block quotations or long extracts are indented or set in a smaller point size, quote marks are not necessary. See Quoted Text and Extracts.
Common usage and many style manuals in the usa dictate that the period and comma always be set inside closing quotation marks, while the colon, semicolon, question mark and exclamation mark are set outside (after)‚–unless the question mark or exclamation mark belong to the quoted material, in which case they are set inside the quotes.
“Double opening and closing quotes.” “A quote ‘within’ a quote.”
Quoted Text and Extracts May be indented, set in a smaller point size or a different font from the text, e.g. italic instead of roman. The space between the text and block quotation should be either a full line space or a half line space. Block quotations and extracts usually do not require quotation marks.
Raised Initials base-align on the first line of the para-
graph. Avoid using raised initials in multiple columns. Using a different typeface, weight, version, or indenting the initial can add to the effect. Small Capitals These give more emphasis to a word or sentence than can be conveyed by using italics. Use small caps for acronyms (nato) and for roman numerals (chapter iv). They are also often used for chapter headings and running heads. As with full caps, words in small caps are often improved in readability and appearance if set with a little more character spacing.
Small caps are designed to match the height and weight of the lowercase letters. Fake small caps generated by design software (below right) are only reduced regular caps and are too light and narrow. If possible, use properly drawn small caps.
Small Caps (properly drawn) SMALL C APS (fake)
Tracking (or “letterspacing”) The uniform addition or subtraction of space applied to a whole word or setting. Headlines and other large size display settings may need to be tracked tighter. Very small type (4 – 7 point) may need to be tracked more openly. Reversed-out type (light on a dark background) will be more readable if tracked open slightly.
tracking (untracked) tracking (tracked)
®
Trademarks The registered symbol ( ) and trademark ( ) follow the word without an extra space. It is customary to reduce the size of both marks in headlines and display settings.
™
URLs and Email Addresses Setting email addresses in italic in text can highlight the address and also avoid confusion with other text material. Do not begin a sentence with either an email or a website address. Where
a line break is necessary in a url, take care to avoid breaking it in a way which could confuse the reader. A hyphen should not be used nor should a url that contains a hyphen be broken at the hyphen. Vertical Position Adjust the vertical position of parentheses, brackets, slashes, hyphens, dashes and quotation marks according to context. The trademark and registered symbols often benefit from this adjustment as well. In some software applications, this is done with the “Baseline Shift” function.
(CAPS) min/max [350] 80–56 (unadjusted) (CAPS) min /max [350] 80 – 56 (adjusted)
Widows and Orphans A widow results when the last word or part of a word appears on a line by itself at the end of a paragraph. No less than five characters nor the last part of a hyphenated word should be on a single line at the end of a paragraph. An orphan is created when a paragraph ends on the first line of a new page or column. Although both widows and orphans are to be avoided, in book work it is not always possible to avoid having a widow. Word Spacing Optimal word spacing in typefaces leaves just enough space between words to facilitate the reading process. Word spacing which is too tight will cause the words to optically connect to each other, while
spacing which is too open will cause gaps in a text that inhibit readability. In text settings, the space between words should never be optically greater than the space between the lines. Word spacing in justified settings should be kept close enough to facilitate an uninterrupted flow in reading. Never use double word spaces after the period or other punctuation in normal typesetting. (Academic papers have a different set of standards regarding this.) Basic Proofreading Marks Proofreading is the silent partner in typography; if done properly no one will notice. However, if not caught in time, a single mistake can often mean that an entire job will have to be reprinted. There are two kinds of proofreading. The first is called “soft” proofing and is done on-screen using a spell-check program. Soft proofing can only catch the most obvious mistakes. The second, and by far the more important, is “hard” proofing and it is done on paper output. At this stage everything is checked: page sizes, folios, typefaces and type sizes, etc.
One cardinal rule of proofreading is to never proof your own setting; ask someone else to proof it for you. If that is not possible then, move to a quiet area away from your desk and phone. Try to take a short break before beginning the actual proofing of the document. Guard against simply reading the text; rather, patiently go through the entire document word-for-word noting all mistakes and queries in the margins using these marks: lc
The quick Brown Fox Change to lowercase
The quick brown fox
ital
The quick brown fox
Change to italic
The quick brown fox
rom
The quick brown fox
Change to roman
The quick brown fox
bf
The quick brown fox
Change to bold face
The quick brown fox
Cap
The quick brown fox
Change to uppercase
The quick Brown Fox
S.C.
The quick brown fox
Change to small caps
The quick brown fox
The quick brown fox
Insert indicated character The quick brown fox.
The quick brownfox
Insert space
The quick brown fox
Move right
The quick brown fox
New paragraph or line
The quick brown fox The quick brown fox The quick brown fox
run on
The quick
brown fox
trans
The brown quick fox
delete
The quick brownn fox Delete character(s)
The quick brown fox
stet
The quick brown fox
The quick brown fox
The quick br own fox Close up space
The quick brown fox
wf
The quick brown fox Wrong font
The quick brown fox
o.s.c.
The quick fox
The quick brown fox
No new paragraph or line The quick brown fox Transpose words or lines Ignore indicated change
Out–see copy
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