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Ten typographic mistakes everyone makes

recedinghairline.co.uk — Grammar nazis are so last century. Welcome, friends, to the brave new world of the typography nazi. This post shows ten typography mistakes that everyone makes, an explanation of why each is wrong, and details on how to fix them.

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  • LeanMeat, on 04/21/2008, -101/+1FIRST!!!
    • linkdj, on 04/21/2008, -2/+76I'm sorry, but if you read the article, you would know that exclamation mark you are using was from an antiquated 1806 typewriter spec that only made the dot the size of one pixel, when in fact Congress passed a law in 1921 requiring all exclamation point points to be at least 2 pixels wide. Next time please use the proper exclamation point by holding down the alt key, and then shooting yourself in the head.
    • talonstriker, on 04/21/2008, -1/+4The extra !! are redundant.
      • humperdeath, on 04/21/2008, -1/+11Unless you work for the Department of Redundancy Dept.
      • oneoverzero, on 04/21/2008, -3/+2Or the Redundant Department of Redundancy.
    • emalen, on 04/21/2008, -1/+23You must be new. I'd like to welcome you to digg. Now please, gtfo. Have a nice day.
    • Acglaphotis, on 04/21/2008, -0/+16Youtube called, they want their comment back.
    • amirman, on 04/21/2008, -5/+5Half of you digg me up and half of you digg me down.
      • CyberSol, on 04/22/2008, -1/+1what about those of us who don't do anything?
  • LeanMeat, on 04/21/2008, -84/+1FIRST!!!!
  • DaGr33k, on 04/21/2008, -64/+1firefox has spellcheck built inside just use that.
    • bingobongony, on 04/21/2008, -10/+42So...in your sad haste to suck Firefox's broswer *****, you didn't even bother to read the article, did you?
    • IllBeBack, on 04/21/2008, -1/+12So, when Firefox spell checks the word "your," it seems to be ok. And yet the correct word is "you're" when you mean to say "you are." And it's obvious that Firefox wasn't able to assist you in capitalizing the fist word of your weak-ass sentence.

      So, in summary, ***** off.
    • bryceman111, on 04/21/2008, -2/+4Spellcheck, not Grammarcheck ya' douche.
  • linkdj, on 04/21/2008, -28/+264Wow. I really couldn't give a *****.
    • ShempRider, on 04/21/2008, -1/+6Yeah, that sums up my attitude quite nicely.
    • oneoverzero, on 04/21/2008, -1/+7I, at the very least, find it mildly interesting (albeit useless), but thats probably just because I like typography.

      I also kinda took the article as a bit of satire against the people who correct every little thing about your grammar and spelling...
      • gutistg, on 04/21/2008, -1/+1I use every one of these, and with some frequency.
        • Aensland, on 04/22/2008, -1/+1Those alt-thingies don't work for me, at least not on this laptop.
          Edit: someone below pointed out that they're Mac-specific. Right.
    • TheSabre, on 04/21/2008, -11/+4Wow. Then don't read the article or comment on it afterwards.
    • DulcetTone, on 04/21/2008, -4/+9Anyone who thinks neutral quotes and apostrophes are a PROBLEM is himself a problem. Who would ever want to differentiate between these when typing, and who even notices an aesthetic gain from when they are angled differently? We must harvest organs from these typoweenies. It is initiatives such as this that gave Microsoft the idea that they could invent their own characters for quotations and apostrophes.
    • 2Bnor2B, on 04/21/2008, -1/+3“I really couldn't give a *****.” should be “I really couldn’t give a *****.”
      Note the proper use of the single quotation mark.
    • b04155, on 04/22/2008, -0/+4Is it really the fault of everyone, or the developers who didn't adhere to the (original) standards?
  • DevinOlsen, on 04/21/2008, -21/+135Nobody cares...
    • nekochan, on 04/21/2008, -1/+33you mean "…" instead of "...", right?
      • MikeWanDo, on 04/21/2008, -0/+15No, those are the wrong quotes, you need to use the other ones. Not that I could actually get any of their alt characters to work in anything.
      • neurobox, on 04/21/2008, -1/+2I see what you did there…
    • pattyman5000, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1Ooh, actually you wanna use ellipses for that – according to the site “it's option-; on your keyboard…”

      God that was a pain in the ass...
    • humperdeath, on 04/21/2008, -0/+17I know, I am always making the mistake of not orienting the 'north' arrow in the correct way, then I might estimate the distance in 'straight line' rather than following the road for the actual distance.
      Oh wait, these are topographical errors.
      Nevermind.
    • Angostura, on 04/21/2008, -0/+3Actually, yes they do. I did magazine layout for a number of years and I got all of them except that I always used a normal full stop for decimal points.
      • stalefries, on 04/22/2008, -0/+1I think the standard of not using a period (aka full stop) might be only for the UK, because I've never heard of it over here in the US, and I tend to care about these things.
    • bosssmiley, on 04/22/2008, -0/+1Somewhere out there is some strange person whose soul ascended in song upon reading this article...and so a sub-editor is born.
  • hokie47, on 04/21/2008, -8/+1It was down for me
    http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:wfO59TBdN1kJ: ...
    • rodrigorules, on 04/21/2008, -0/+16you aren't missing much
    • dkichline, on 04/21/2008, -0/+5I am sorry, but those are not proper ellipses at the end of your url.
  • Foofoofoofoobar, on 04/21/2008, -15/+133Anybody who bitches about these errors has too much time on their hands.
    • darkism, on 04/21/2008, -7/+9Anyone who bitches about grammar errors also has too much time on their hands.
      Which is like 90% of Digg.
    • protoopus, on 04/22/2008, -0/+1i work for a newspaper, and we have people who can discuss this sort of minutae until you feel as though your ears are going to bleed.
  • davidamerland, on 04/21/2008, -4/+58A little anally retentive don't you think? I mean "middle dot for prices?" WOW!
    • Tenlow, on 04/21/2008, -1/+20I've actually never in my life seen a middle dot in a price. I was under the impression that a decimal point was correct mark to use to denote a decimal.
      • neurobox, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1Seen it on dollar-store price tags in my youth… just thought it was “weird.”
    • voidvector, on 04/21/2008, -1/+6It's a British convention, as noted by the domain name.

      Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_separator
      • Tenlow, on 04/21/2008, -0/+4Yeah I read that but as it's a non SI unit, the middle dot is actually improper.
  • adambadam, on 04/21/2008, -3/+9I found it interesting about the periods vs. middle dots in prices. I never even thought that there would have been any reason for it to be different.
  • dreamtiger, on 04/21/2008, -11/+17Perfectionists rejoice! This is great!
  • Bukowsky, on 04/21/2008, -5/+87Submitted 23 days ago, and just NOW making the Front page? How the ***** does that fit into the digg algorithm??
    • InferiorWang, on 04/21/2008, -1/+6Slow news day.

      Has Hillary stopped talking ***** or something?
      • heliox, on 04/21/2008, -1/+11I bet Hillary uses the wrong ***** quotes.
        • dohidied, on 04/22/2008, -0/+3She would lie and say that she used the right ones from the beginning.
      • amirman, on 04/21/2008, -1/+5Howard Dean used too many exclamation points.
    • dohidied, on 04/22/2008, -0/+2This is the first time questioning the algorithm actually makes sense.
  • oldhick, on 04/21/2008, -6/+4Holy friggin hell! I have a tough enough time trying to proof read the utter crap I type for spelling and grammar mistakes. I don't know if I can make it if I have to worry about typography!!! That's some nit picky ***** right there...
    • MtheoryX, on 04/21/2008, -1/+1Do you mean proofread?
      Sorry, I'm a douche. (Yes, I know, wrong single quote.)
      • oldhick, on 04/22/2008, -0/+3Yes! See, I'm struggling with the basics. You add in 'typography' and I guess its back to English class for me!
  • bingobongony, on 04/21/2008, -11/+38Uhhh..these aren't typos. They are acceptable uses for people using typrewriters and now computers without switching fonts. Ths site is just pathetically anal.
    • frazw, on 04/21/2008, -0/+18Yes, they are not mistakes, each is a work-around. They may be lazy but no meaning is lost so they are largely irrelevant.
    • InferiorWang, on 04/21/2008, -0/+12Those mistakes really only count if you are doing graphic design professionally. When you design brochures, pamphlets, menus, logos, letterhead, etc. for high-end clients, every little mistake tarnishes the image of your client, and your image as well.
      • jaythree9, on 04/21/2008, -0/+4Exactly, and likewise if your design is primarily for the web, you should ignore these tips. Typographer's quotes and other irritating hellish character entities like ellipsis don't really show up well unless you have the HTML entity code, and even then, they don't show up in all browsers or email programs - not to mention the havok wreaked by using these sever side applications - which usually just get read as gobbledygook.
      • GalacticRerun, on 04/21/2008, -0/+3Agreed. I, as a designer, love to see this. It's amazing how other qualified designers get almost all of these wrong. I've seen so much wrong stuff I begin to think I'm the one doing it wrong. I'm glad this came up. But for regular type users it's not really a big issue.
    • neurobox, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2Why should we learn this stuff? It should be built into Word! *snork*
  • Nosty, on 04/21/2008, -9/+14This is retarded.
  • saulimus, on 04/21/2008, -6/+38The article seems to be written for typographers... not suitable for Digg.
    • Asvetic, on 04/21/2008, -2/+16Written for Typographers and Designers who are also Digg Users. While this is a niche article, I probably wouldn't have seen it without Digg's help.
      • cbreaker, on 04/21/2008, -1/+2If you ever tried to publish something in print which would be run through an editor, you'd have run into these things real quickly. Anyone doing work for print would already know.

        It's not a bad article, although if this guy honestly gets pissed at web sites for improper quotation usages he's just a *****. But, if his annoyances are from what he sees in print, I don't mind it so much. You won't find these mistakes in print very often.
    • oneoverzero, on 04/21/2008, -0/+4I'm not a typographer, nor will i probably use any of this, but it is, at the very least, mildly interesting.
    • Peko, on 04/21/2008, -1/+2I know quite a bit about fonts. It's all context. On one hand, I can see how the attention to detail is nice for official publications. Books, magazines, etc. Digg on the other hand is all about the now. And for the most part, we don't give a *****.
      • sephiroth965, on 04/22/2008, -0/+2And the special characters used for a lot of the fixes don't show up on a lot of web forms.
  • MattyLite, on 04/21/2008, -5/+3Whew! I have a lot to learn…
  • x0rcist, on 04/21/2008, -17/+15Oh man, the difference between ... and … is astounding.
    This guy should go kill himself.
  • melonhedd, on 04/21/2008, -7/+2Forgetting to set a background-color on your website.
  • Trebis, on 04/21/2008, -8/+16And nothing of value was learned.
  • lebruf, on 04/21/2008, -1/+34Now I know what a douchebag I sound like when I point out rules nobody cares about.
  • irvin666, on 04/21/2008, -4/+13I have never once, in my life, heard of a "middle dot" on prices. Ever.
    • wacomwacoff, on 04/21/2008, -0/+5It's a British English rule that is totally obsolete. Don't worry about it.
    • SubjectiveC, on 04/21/2008, -0/+6Me neither. It looks like multiplication.
  • notman, on 04/21/2008, -14/+9What a lame ***** article. None of these 'fixes' work in Windows without using a character map, and who the ***** is going to do that every time just to make sure their quotation marks lean the correct way?
    • amirman, on 04/21/2008, -0/+4typographers. that's who.
    • cbreaker, on 04/21/2008, -1/+5Pretty much anyone that is going to be writing for something that will be in print.
    • Peko, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2A lot of the tips in the article work as alt codes. I'm not justifying it, i'm still heavily in the can't-give-a-***** category, but I used to know the alt code for middot · by heart.
  • SLockhart, on 04/21/2008, -13/+6He lost me before the list when he used the f word. I'm not a prude but I can't take that kind of writing seriously.
  • iDoraemon, on 04/21/2008, -7/+0After reading this, I have this huge desire to punch someone in the face.
    • wacomwacoff, on 04/21/2008, -0/+7Punching people in the face because you read an article about quotation marks? Violent much?
  • blackinthmiddle, on 04/21/2008, -6/+3Sorry, but I'm simply not going to worry about what type of quotes or ellipses my laptop is producing!
  • NewsrmPicasso, on 04/21/2008, -5/+40I care! I work at a newspaper. Believe me, there are readers that point this stuff out...and not in a nice way.
    • burstaneurysm, on 04/21/2008, -3/+22That was an improper ellipsis, *****.
    • diggerphelps, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2Well you SHOULD care.
      The rest of us, simply, don't.
      (for the record, I appreciate good typography, I just don't practice it much, especially not on the web)
  • banisco, on 04/21/2008, -12/+3the article should read "Ten typographic mistakes nobody cares about, not even grammar professors, so why should anyone else give a sh** about them, even graphic designers, copy writers, and linguists."

    What an amazing waste of time. I thought articles on digg were supposed in be useful or at the very least... interesting
    • NathanielJ, on 04/21/2008, -0/+9Uh, copy writers care, trust me. It's obviously not a list meant to be used by people when making comments on Digg, but you'd better believe that publishers and editors have to live by these rules.
    • neurobox, on 04/21/2008, -0/+3I'll second that.. In fact some of the page layout software has such fine control over fonts that you can specify every variation, inflection, or embellishment ever known to typography. When it matters what shape a "Q" is, that's about when it matters that you use the right quotes. Most diggers need not be concerned.
    • astrnomic, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2Because you don't think it's interesting doesn't mean no one does.
  • bokep, on 04/21/2008, -9/+2Top 10 things no one cares about:

    1. Typographical "mistakes"
    2. ...

    See the (...)? yeah it's wrong
  • psion01, on 04/21/2008, -8/+7Some people hate change so much. Deal with it, typography nazis, technology and convenience will continue to change standards.
    • cbreaker, on 04/21/2008, -1/+5Tell that to anyone that writes for print.

      Even Penthouse Magazine, which one NEVER reads for the articles, will have all of the correct quotes, dots, and everything else in the right place. Maybe not the middle-dot for sub-pounds, though.
      • psion01, on 04/22/2008, -0/+1How is Penthouse magazine doing these days?

        I see your point, but you're missing mine. Penthouse is part of a print industry that is currently weathering the onslaught of the Web; an industry that has seen its profits tumble in the face of digital competition and along with that the print industry's influence has waned. So while it might have been a dandy practice of print media to start and stop a quote with sixty-sixes and ninety-nines, on the web, that practice is a bit deprecated. And why shouldn't it? What special features do start and stop quotes bring that location-neutral quotes don't?

        The inconvenience of these kinds of typographical conventions sticks out like a sharp edge on a rock. In time, shortcuts and simpler ways to get the job done will erode those edges down to a soft curve that dispenses with nineteenth century notions about proper typography and leave only the features that are truly useful.
  • juniorb, on 04/21/2008, -1/+26As a graphics/layout designer—doing magazine layouts, annual reports for large companies, catalogs, and many kind of marketing materials—I work with type constantly, and I have to deal with each and every one of these “mistakes” on a day-to-day basis.
    • Asvetic, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1Wish he listed the Windows fixes along side the MAC ones.
      • miken32, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2Entering extra characters on Windows usually means holding down alt and then typing 0xxx on the numeric keypad. But those aren't unicode characters so they're likely to change between fonts. So you need to use the character map which is hidden away in your start menu under accessories/system tools.
        On a Mac, it's much simpler, and that's probably what he has access to.
    • diggerphelps, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1Nice use of the emdash there, junior.
  • santiago1, on 04/21/2008, -0/+17 So, if everyone is so upset by this article, why is it on the front page? Is it so hard to select the "bury for being lame" button, or do you just feel the need to digg it so everyone else has to read your bitching?
    • linkdj, on 04/21/2008, -2/+2I dunno, I thought my bitching was pretty funny.
    • astrnomic, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1Or maybe some people find it interesting...though admittedly the comments aren't showing many of them.
  • bethlagarrison, on 04/21/2008, -0/+8These errors are nothing compared to larger type errors like improper kerning and leading.

    Learn how to set type properly before you start to give a ***** about any of these.
    • cbreaker, on 04/21/2008, -1/+5Not even the same thing. Kerning and leading errors are usually part of the font itself, or in the font rendering engine. They have nothing to do with the proper usage of quotes and dots, and are many times completely out of the writers' realm of control.

      • bethlagarrison, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1That's so incredibly incorrect. I'm assuming you aren't a designer - in which case you really don't need to worry about this stuff anyways. Things like proper punctuation, kerning and leading aren't relevant to non-designers.

        But kerning and leading are not reliant on the font. Some fonts DO have atrocious kerning by default, but very few fonts have perfect kerning by default. Kerning and leading are reliant on the person setting the type, in the same way that typeface and size are. And they're things that most designers are awful at, especially web designers.
    • Peko, on 04/21/2008, -0/+6im in yr base steelin yr sheep
      • bethlagarrison, on 04/21/2008, -1/+3That made my day.
        • Peko, on 04/22/2008, -0/+2I'm betting not even all graphic designer types will get this one, but yeah, a classic.
  • aenima987, on 04/21/2008, -5/+1undugg
  • dignews, on 04/21/2008, -5/+6WTF this was submitted 23 days ago and its just become popular now?????
  • eminiguy, on 04/21/2008, -4/+12Useful piece of knowledge for those who like learning new things every day. That seems to exclude most Americans, but that's hardly any news... And then they whine about H1Bs and Mexicans taking their jobs. What a huge surprise!
    • linkdj, on 04/21/2008, -8/+1You are a whole new level of jackass.
    • LenaVG, on 04/22/2008, -1/+1eminiguy- I completely agree with you!!! So nicely put in couple of words!!
  • P522, on 04/21/2008, -2/+11A bunch of you sound like the guy who wrote "You know what's stupid? Everything I don't understand?" http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/you_know_w ...
  • psichopate, on 04/21/2008, -6/+110 mistakes no one cares about... [yep, that was wrong ellipsis and i am probably using brackets/parentheses/whatever incorrectly...]. I make all of these mistakes and I am not going to change... Waste of time.
  • newbill123, on 04/21/2008, -0/+9This is good to know when information is going into a final (aka "dead") presentation format. If I'm making a printed report that I will NOT have to also distribute electronically, I go whole hog to include correct typography.

    On the web and in formats where the text will be computer readable, I default to typewriter hacks instead of typography. The computer is still pretty dumb and can't automatically deduce intent behind typographic variations. Some search engines will be choked if my text specifies fractions and curly quotes when the searcher is only entering numbers, slashes, and straight quotes.

    Unless I can be sure this is for human viewing only, I fall back to using the typewriter customs. Otherwise, using fancy typography is just being pretentious and obfuscating the meaning of my own work.
  • jordan314, on 04/21/2008, -1/+9The curly quotes “ ” (don't know if digg is going to convert these) have caused me more grief as a programmer and web designer than I care to think about. I hate those things.
  • Digscuttle, on 04/21/2008, -3/+7I had to fight not to roll my eyes on this. If you actually pointed that stuff out, in the immortal words of Office Space, "I do believe you'd get your ass kicked."
  • KingGorilla, on 04/21/2008, -5/+3If everyone makes these mistakes then why are they even called mistakes? Why don't we change the rules to suit ourselves?
    • neurobox, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1There you have it, the degradation of society. lol Indeed.. maybe "proper" typography was a fad... gone the way of the mullet
    • kipmartin, on 04/21/2008, -0/+3because we arent in the Bush administration? that work for ya?
  • supermansuper, on 04/21/2008, -0/+3MS Word automatically makes all these changes for me. I dont have to worry about ALT codes!
  • nickbotner, on 04/21/2008, -0/+3Useful info for designers. However, I have to copy and rewrite it because I don't want to distribute articles that uses the F-bomb at my work.
  • shampoozleberry, on 04/21/2008, -8/+1this is probably the worst article ive seen on digg yet. it was so bad that when i finished i felt obligated to sign into digg on my work computer and bury this story. the sad thing is, 300 morons actually enjoyed this.
  • wacomwacoff, on 04/21/2008, -0/+6Some of these are indeed important from a design perspective (the 'curly quotes' instead of inch marks), but several of these rules are British and do not apply to American English (such as the completely obsolete 'interpunct' instead of a decimal dot in prices).
  • baconz, on 04/21/2008, -0/+5Grammar nazis > Typographic nazis > Irony Police
    Please Note: I used the proper alligator mouth symbols above to denote the principle of asshattedness in the various personality deficiencies.
    • poploserdigg, on 04/21/2008, -0/+4300 diggs, 117 comments, and 1 funny one. Congrats.
    • SubjectiveC, on 04/21/2008, -3/+4Grammar nazis > Typographic nazis > Irony Police > Actual Nazis
  • Reviler, on 04/21/2008, -3/+4I guess I should have read the tile "Typographic" and knew not to waste my time.

    For all you people out there who use opening and closing quotes and do anything even remotely related to programming STOP RIGHT NOW! Some programmer is going to waste an hour of his life wondering why the crap you sent him is causing a string to keep throwing errors.
  • aceakm, on 04/21/2008, -0/+5Most people on the internet need help with basic sentence structure and spelling before this kind of stuff.
  • dlm85, on 04/21/2008, -1/+2?Why
  • thebza451, on 04/21/2008, -2/+1dumb, buried
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