When using a proportional font, you should use only one space between sentences. Well... In reality, it shouldn't matter. Whatever mechanism "typesets" the text should use the proper amount of space between words & sentences no matter how many space characters the user typed.

max-width: Text with about 30–60 characters per line is easiest to read.

line-height: Default tends to be 1.2, but 1.4–1.6 might be better for on-screen reading.

em dash: —

• A sudden break in thought: So, then I—what did you say?
• A parenthetical statement
• Instead of a colon or semicolon to link clauses
• To indicate an open range: Robert Fisher (1969—)
• A stand-in for the last two digits of a four digit year: 20—
• Before author citations
• As a bullet in lists

en dash: –

• Ranges: Bake for 8–10 minutes.
• Connection: The Mason–Dixon line
• In place of a hypen in compounds in which one part is already hyphenated
• In place of a hypen in compounds in which one part is two words: pre–World War II
• Sports scores or Supreme Court votes: 100–99; 5–4 (At least according to this CMS Q&A. Rationalized because we often use the word to when reading them.)

minus: −

• Negative numbers: It got down to −10° F today.
• Subtraction: 10−7=3

hyphen:

• To separate parts of a compound word: well-known
• To indicate prefixes & suffixes: pre-, post-, -s, -es
• To indicate that a word should be spoken letter-by-letter: k-n-o-w
• When a prefix ending in a vowel is added to a word beginning with a vowel: co-operate, pre-eminent (see also diaeresis below)

prime: ′ ″

• Feet & inches: He stood 5′11¾″.

swung dash: In Unicode 4. Most fonts don't have it. Used for brevity in dictionaries when repeating the head word. A tilde (~) can serve as a substitute.

long dash

• 2-em dash: missing letters is a word: Mr. F—— wishes to remain anonymous.
• 3-em dash: missing word or phrase: What the ———?

diaeresis

• To indicate that a vowel should not be considered to form a dipthong with the previous vowel
  • daïs
  • deëmphasize
  • coöperate
  • coördinate
  • naïve
  • noël
  • preëminent
  • preëmpt
  • reënlist
  • microörganism
• To indicate that a trailing E is not silent: Brotë

Sometimes an acute accent is used: Nestlé, Pokémon, saké, molé

grave accent

• To indicate in verse that -ed should be syllabic where it would regularly not be: blessèd

(I thought it was an acute accent, but I may be wrong.)

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• The Elements of Style
• Ten word line

last updated 1 year ago #