Page:The practice of typography; correct composition; a treatise on spelling, abbreviations, the compounding and division of words, the proper use of figures and nummerals by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914.djvu/219

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they abut or interfere with upright letters. The capital A, with its broad-angled shoulder, does not need this intervening hair-space, nor is it needed in a closing quote that follows a period or comma, but it is needed in every place where the tail of the quote touches the stem of a letter. French printers give more distinctness to the quote-marks by the use of the thick space before and often after all quotations that do not end with points.

"These quote-marks are too close to the letters"
" These quote-marks set off with proper space."


Dashes used as marks of punctuation should be separated from their adjoining text letters by the hair-space or the five-to-em space. When a comma (rarely needed) precedes the dash, the space may be omitted, for the blank above the comma is enough to prevent its interference. In electrotype work the f at the end or the j at the beginning of a line, if kerned, should have that kern kept within the line of the page by a protecting thin space, for the kern may be broken off in moulding. This remark applies to all characters projecting beyond the page.

If it is possible to do so without uneven spacing, avoid placing an em dash at the beginning or at the end of a line. The dash makes a gap in the regular outline of the page.

Dashes of two ems or more should not be used to mark a break. For an ellipsis make use of three periods two spaces apart.