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 fine-tuning 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.
View Rules and Best Practices in Page Layout Illustrations: Typographical Punctuation for a quick visual on curly quotes, en and em dashes, and ways to create an ellipsis. Each of these is covered in more detail on the next 3 pages of this lesson.
The Bottom Line: 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.
