Punctuation is vital to written communication. It creates the pauses, inflections, hand gestures and body language of the written word. If punctuation is not used well, typographic communication can be confusing, misleading and difficult to read.
BACKSTORY
The earliest alphabetic inscriptions had no such symbols: no commas to indicate pauses, no periods between sentences—there weren’t even spaces between words.
Even early Greek and Roman writing did not use any form of punctuation. It wasn’t until about the 5th century B.C. that Greek playwrights began to use symbols to distinguish the ends of phrases in written drama to help the actors know when to pause. Later, in formal inscriptions, word divisions started to be indicated by a dot centered between words. Still later, a space began to replace the dot and gradually found general acceptance. By A.D. 600 the practice was common.
In some early manuscripts, the punctuation mark for a “stop” resembled our present colon: two vertical dots. Later, one of the dots was dropped. The remaining dot served as a period, colon or comma, depending on whether it was placed even with the top, middle or bottom of the lowercase letters.
A scholarly approach to change
Until about A.D. 800 there were no clear-cut lines of demarcation in the design development of our alphabet. Changes evolved gradually. The same held true for punctuation. However, this changed when Charlemagne ascended the throne of the Holy Roman Empire. Not content merely to rule, Charlemagne’s ambition was to construct a sweeping revival of learning within his dominion. When he met Alcuin, a well-known English scholar, Charlemagne saw the means to his goal and invited the scholar to organize the educational system of the Holy Roman Empire. Accepting the challenge, Alcuin’s first mission was to standardize a writing style for all scribes to use. The main result was the development of the Carolinian minuscule, the forerunner of our own modern lowercase letters. In addition, Alcuin took the first steps to systemize punctuation.
Aldus Manutius, the Venetian typographer and printer who gave us portable books and italic letters in the late 15th century, further established the system begun by Alcuin. Manutius used the period to indicate a full stop at the end of a sentence and a diagonal slash to represent a pause in reading.
More join the party
The basic forms for the semicolon and question mark were developed in 16th century England. Most typographic historians maintain that the question mark is an abbreviation of the Latin word quaestio, meaning what. At first the mark was printed as a capital ‘Q’ atop a lowercase ‘o.’ Over time, this early logotype was simplified to what we use today.
In the 17th and 18th centuries the apostrophe, quotation marks, dash and exclamation point were added to fill out the basic set of punctuation marks. The exclamation point (called a “bang” or “screamer” by early 20th-century printers) also descended from a logotype for a Latin word: io, which means joy. The mark was first made by setting a capital ‘I’ over a lowercase ‘o.’ Gradually, like the question mark, this too was simplified into its present form.
A lone straggler
As recently as the 1960s a new mark, the interrobang (featured below), was suggested as a fitting end for sentences like, “You did what?!” While the mark was incorporated into one typeface—Americana—aside from a few random applications and an article or two in graphic design magazines, it has not enjoyed much exposure.
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
There are about 30 punctuation marks. Most are not used often—but all must be handled correctly. The Chicago Manual of Style—considered by most to be the standard guide to good graphic communication—explains in detail how each punctuation mark should be used. Consider adding the manual to your reference library. The following notes provide a brief overview of how to use the most important punctuation marks.
Periods indicate the end of a declarative or imperative sentence. Period.
Commas indicate the simplest form of interruption of thought or continuity. A comma is used to join a clause to a conjunction, to join clauses in a compound sentence, to separate an adverbial or adjectival clause from the body of a sentence and to separate a series of three or more elements.
Exclamation points make an outcry or emphatic statement. Use sparingly!
Question marks indicate a query or express a doubt. You knew that already, didn’t you?
Colons are used for the following: after the words follows, the following, to introduce a list or series and to introduce a formal statement or a speech in dialogue.
Semicolons are used to separate two independent clauses that are closely related; when commas are already being used to separate words in a series, a semicolon can be used to separate the longer components of the series.
“Double quotes enclose words, phrases and sentences that run into text,” he said.
“Single quotes enclose quotes within quotes,” she added. “You mean when you quote a statement like ‘Single quotes enclose quotes within quotes,’ you don’t use a double quote again within the quote?” he asked. “That’s correct,” she replied.
Parentheses indicate sets of (1) amplifying, explanatory or digressive elements, and (2) they enclose numerals or letters marking divisions or enumerations that run into the text. (They also enclose parenthetical remarks.)
Braces show the relationship in tables between groups of:
numbers such as {1, 2, 3, 4 …}
words like {one, two, three, four …}
and phrases such as {one cent, two cents …}
Brackets enclose editorial interpolations, explanations, corrections or comments. They can be used to take the place of parentheses within parentheses, to enclose information that is not the original writer’s work and to enclose italicized phrases such as [
to be continued].
Dashes and hyphens are often confused but are not interchangeable.
Hyphens are used to divide words that break at the end of a line and to connect parts of compound words such as go-between, ill-fated and run-of-the-mill.
En dashes are used to indicate a range of almost anything with numbers, including dates, times and pages in a document. Refer to The Chicago Manual of Style, pages 187–188.
Em dashes are used for emphasis. Since they break up the flow of the sentence—only use the em dash to stress a point. An em dash can also indicate missing words or a sudden break in thought—confusing, isn’t it?
Apostrophes indicate possession or the deletion of a letter or number in a contraction, don’t they? No apostrophe is needed, however, in plural or possessive abbreviations like MAs and 1920s.
Asterisks are used as reference points for footnotes.*
Ellipses indicate the omission of a word, phrase, line or paragraph; they also indicate the end of a thought that goes on, and on …
*They're pretty little things.
FINE MARKS OF DESIGN
Most punctuation marks work fine right out of the box of the design application; typeface designers have taken care of that for you. There are a few instances, however, where you might want to adjust the punctuation for added finesse. Guidelines for the most important and common of these follow:
The right quotes
OK, it shouldn’t have to be said, but always use “smart” or “curly” quotes when setting type—never the foot or inch mark. A simple Preferences setting in virtually any software application will make smart quotes the default. Sometimes files of copy containing the wrong quotes will arrive on your desktop from writers, coworkers and even bosses. Don’t assume copy providers will do the right thing. Check all copy you receive.
Quotation marks are optional in a headline, before a decorative initial cap or surrounding the words yes and no—except in direct discourse.
Correct spacing
Also look out for double spaces after periods. When people used typewriters—and monospaced fonts—two spaces were needed after a period to distinguish the end of one sentence from the beginning of the next. Even though typewriters haven’t been used for word processing since Michael Jackson was known only for his music, the addition of two spaces after a period remains a deeply ingrained habit. One space after a period is the right number. As with dumb quotes, be sure the copy you receive is purged of superfluous spaces. Sometimes an extra space sneaks in around hyphens, too. Remove it. Hyphens should not be surrounded by additional spaces.
Cap alignment
Hyphens, en and em dashes, parentheses, braces and brackets look fine in lowercase settings because this is the context in which these characters are most often used, and type designers aligned them accordingly. The problem is they can appear too low when set next to caps and lining figures. The larger the type, the more noticeable this will be. Use the baseline/shift feature of your layout program to raise the character slightly until it’s optically centered with the height of the caps or lining figures.
Hung punctuation
The practice of extending lines of text that begin or end with punctuation marks slightly into the margin to improve the optical alignment of the column is referred to as hung punctuation. In flush-left or justified text, a line that begins with quotation marks or an apostrophe can appear to be indented. This is because these punctuation marks are smaller than most other characters, with large amounts of white space surrounding them.
The same problem can occur in the right margin of flush-right or justified text. Lines ending with quotation marks, apostrophes, periods, commas, hyphens or asterisks will appear to end short of the margin. If available, use the optical margin alignment feature in your design application to create margins that are visually smooth.
Downsizing punctuation
Punctuation almost always looks too big at display sizes. If you are setting headlines, subheads or other copy larger than 24 point, try downsizing the punctuation by a few points.
Ellipses
Use a true ellipsis rather than three periods. Periods space closer together than ellipses and create a darker image on the page. Ellipses are also drawn slightly smaller than periods so they don’t make too strong a visual statement.
Eliminating clutter
A bunch of hyphens stacked up in the right margin—word breaks causing a visual “ladder”—is distracting to the reader. Some say there shouldn’t be more than two hyphens in a row at the end of a line. An even better rule is that there shouldn’t be more than two punctuation marks of any kind stacked on top of each other.
An extra period is not necessary if a sentence ends with etc.
Use only one exclamation mark at a time. Filling copy with !!!! won’t make up for what the writing has failed to do.
Dashes on a diet
Em dashes make a strong statement. Sometimes – if space is added on either side – an en dash can be used in place of an em dash. Some style manuals support this idea—others don’t. Be sure that you are in sync with the style required by your client.
Punctuation as design
Readers are intimately familiar with punctuation marks used at sizes equivalent to the text. Consider changing the paradigm. Very large punctuation can be used as a familiar symbol to engage the reader or focus the message. Consider the following:
Is punctuation important? You bet!
Should you know the rules? Absolutely.
Can punctuation be fun? For sure.
Go ahead; make your mark.
Interrobang The interrobang—a combination of a question mark and exclamation point—was the first new punctuation mark to be added to our alphabet in several hundred years. It is the first punctuation symbol created by an American. It is also one of only three or four punctuation symbols whose originators can be identified by name.
The concept of the interrobang was first developed by Martin Speckter in 1962. At that time, Speckter—who headed up an advertising and public relations agency in New York City—was editor of a magazine called Type Talks.
It was in a Type Talks article that Speckter first proposed the adoption of a new punctuation mark. It was Speckter’s contention that writers (especially advertising copywriters) needed the new mark to punctuate exclamatory rhetorical questions common in advertising headlines. (A typical example of this might be: “What?! Whiter than White?!”)
To him, this was an instance when neither an exclamation point alone, nor a question mark alone, could fully convey the writer’s intent. Speckter’s idea was to combine the two marks into a single, efficient symbol that would satisfy the needs of copywriters and anyone else who had a need to properly punctuate an exclamatory question.
When Speckter put forth the idea of an exclamatory question mark, he invited readers of Type Talks to join him in coining a name for it. In subsequent issues of Type Talks, myriad names were proposed, ranging from the simple rhet to the tongue-twisting exclarotive. Of the names submitted, Speckter favored either exclamaquest or interrobang, finally settling on the latter.
Many designs were also submitted, suggesting how the new punctuation mark should look. Some of the early submissions to Speckter were more unique than efficient, but most suggested the mark be drawn as an exclamation point, centered in a question mark—both using a common dot.
The interrobang began to appear in print almost immediately after Speckter’s proposal. In the absence of its availability in type, the character was drawn by lettering artists or constructed with single-edged razor blades and rubber cement. The interrobang finally made it into a font of type when Richard Isbell created Americana for American Type Founders (ATF) in 1967. Shortly after ATF released Americana, the interrobang turned up on the keyboard of the new Remington typewriter and was added to several dictionaries.
The interrobang was riding high. But then something happened: Like bell-bottom pants (which eventually made a comeback) and Nehru jackets (which didn’t), the interrobang ceased being popular. The new mark fell into obscurity almost as quickly as it rose to popularity. No subsequent font included the design. Even advertising copywriters seemed to get by without the character that was created expressly for them.
Now, over three decades later, the character has cycled back. Typophiles and type designers have again discovered this logically important, but also easily dismissed, character.
