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Notes on typography on the screen, and on how each decision in the engine was made.

  1. · 3 min read

    Typing typographic characters on Windows

    Alt codes on the numeric keypad, the Win + . symbol panel, and Word’s own shortcuts — three ways to type every dash, quote and sign, with the full code table.

  2. · 3 min read

    Why typographic correction is hard to automate

    Replacing straight quotes with curly ones looks like a dozen regexes. Here is what the dozen regexes get wrong, and what an engine has to do instead.

  3. · 3 min read

    The no-break space does the quiet work

    The most useful typographic character is invisible. Where a no-break space belongs, why CSS cannot place it for you, and the rules that set it.

  4. · 3 min read

    What to read about typography

    The guides, standards and books behind this engine’s rules — what we have read and cite, and what still sits on the reading pile.

  5. · 3 min read

    Setting numbers: groups, ranges, units and signs

    Numbers carry more typography than prose does: digit grouping by language, en-dash ranges, no-break spaces before units, true minus and multiplication signs.

  7. · 2 min read

    Typing typographic characters on a Mac

    Every dash, quote and symbol worth using has an Option-key combination or lives two keystrokes away in the Character Viewer. The full crib sheet.

  9. · 3 min read

    Hanging punctuation without measuring line breaks

    A quotation mark at the start of a line should hang in the margin so the letters line up. Finding out which marks start a line sounds like it needs measuring. It does not.