Use Proper Typographical Punctuation

Curl your quotes, decode your dots and dashes. Proper punctuation marks give your documents professional polish. Straight quotation marks (primes) and three dots in place of an ellipsis may be acceptable for word processing, term papers, and email but not for desktop publishing.

These step-by-step tutorials show how to get proper typographical punctuation marks and offer tips on finetuning the characters that are in most fonts.

• How to Type Quotes, Apostrophes, and Primes
  Avoid the look of an amateur by properly using typographer’s quotation marks (curly quotes) and apostrophes and primes in your desktop published documents.
  
  

• How to Create and Use Dashes and Hyphens
  One mark of professionally set type is the proper use of hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes. Each is a different size and has its own usage.

  Learn how to create, modify, and typeset en dashes (–), em dashes (—), and hyphens (-) in desktop publishing.
  
  

• How to Create an Ellipsis
  Elliptical periods, more commonly called an ellipsis, indicate the omission of text or an interruption or hesitation.

  While it is quite common to use three periods, the more typographically desirable way to insert an ellipsis is to use the ellipsis character available in most fonts or create a custom ellipsis. In both cases, some finetuning is often necessary.
  
  

"Right and wrong do not exist in graphic design. There is only effective and non-effective communication."
— Peter Bilak - Illegibility

Beyond the grammatically correct use of these common punctuation marks, typography calls for using the appropriate typographical versions of each character and adjusting them for best appearance. Attention to shape, size, and spacing sets professionally typeset material apart from typing and word processing.

The degree of finetuning is up to the individual designer and the requirements of the client; but, headlines and other display size text almost always benefit from careful attention to detail.

The Bottomline: For typeset material, use typographer's marks and adjust the spacing for best visual appearance and professional polish. For typing or word processing, such as manuscripts, term papers, email, and for most Web pages, such detailed typographic standards are generally not necessary.

_{The Desktop Document > Text Phase > Text Composition > Embellishment/Finetuning}