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Using Hanging Punctuation

By Jacci Howard Bear, About.com

2 of 5

Technical Alignment

Left-aligned text without hanging punctuation.

Left-aligned text without hanging punctuation.

Image © J. Bear
The eye craves order and alignment. However, technically aligned text doesn't always look as if it is perfectly aligned because of the shape and size of characters in text, especially punctuation.

Without hanging punctuation the quotation mark in this left-aligned example lines up with the left edge of each line of text but its size and shape leaves an unsightly gap in the first line of text.

Jacci Howard Bear
Guide since 1997

Jacci Howard Bear
Desktop Publishing Guide

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