Sins Of Typography

thirty-four PgraRiC Cós Sin Two spaces between sentences. 18 Indenting a paragraph too far. Repent of this sin by using only one space. The standard indent for a paragraph is 1 em, not ½ inch. Most software has default tabs set for ½ inch, so adjust the tabs. Dumb quotes instead of smart quotes. 19 Failing to hang punctuation into the margin. Punctuation has less visual weight than letters or numbers. Evil: "Thou shalt not misuse type" $ Good: "Thou shalt not misuse type" Dumb apostrophe instead of a smart apostrophe. Profane: Don't use prime marks § Sacred: Don't use prime marks By the way, apostrophes atways face this way: Pot o' gold. They never face this way: Pot 'o gold. Compensate for this in display text by hanging the punctuation into the margin. 3 20 Failing to use or create fractions. Wicked: 1/2 $ Righteous: 2 Failing to tuck punctuation inside quotes. 21 Incorrectly abbreviating AM and PM. Immoral: "I love type so much", she confessed. Unclean: am, AM, A.M., A.M. S Clean: a.m. or AM Chaste: "I love type so much," she testified. 22 Failing to provide margins for type in a box. ugly Failing to kern display type. beautiful Unseemly gaps can impede readability and be distracting to the reader. Adjusting the spacing between letters will assuage your guilt. 23 Faux italic/oblique, bold and small cap type. Impure: Italic § Pure: Italic 6 Using a hyphen instead of an en dash. Use an en dash to indicate a duration of time instead of the word "to": the 8-10 commandments, not 8-10 commandments. Sinful: Bold Virtuous: Bold Unkosher: SMALLCAPS S Kosher: SMALLCAPS 21 Strokes which encroach upon letterforms. Hellacious $ Heavenly Using two hyphens instead of an em dash. An em dash signifies a change in thought-or a parenthetical phrase-within a sentence. 25 Horizontally-scaled type. Too many consecutive hyphens. It is sinful to have more than two hyphens on consecutive lines of type, Unrepentant: Scaled $ Penitent: A condensed typeface 26 Vertically-scaled type. and even that should be avoided. Purgatory: Scaled § Heaven: An extended typeface Large amounts of bodytext in uppercase letters. 27 Negative letterspacing. IT BECOMES REALLY DIFFICULT TO READ. Nd uny madable 10 Large amounts of reversed type ARE HARDER TO READ. Type on a busy background is also unreadable. 28 Bad line breaks in headlines and body text. If you don't break lines for sense, they can be harder to read. 11 Using process colors for body text. It is harder to read, but more importantly, it is hell to register on press. 29 Stacking lowercase letters. 12 Underlining titles instead of italicizing them. Thou Shalt Not: The Holy Bible Thou Shalt: The Korán Vertical baselines are celestial. 30 Failing to indent bulleted lists. 13 Failing to eliminate widows. A widow is a word that sits on a line by itself at the end of a paragraph. Avoid this or risk being cast into a lake of fire and brimstone. • Bulleted lists look better when the second line aligns flush with the first letter of the line above it, instead of with the bullet. 31 Failing to use accent marks. Sinner: No esta aqui § Saint: No está aqui. 14 Failing to eliminate orphans. An orphan is the last line of a paragraph that sits alone at the top of a column or page. Type does not like to be alone. 32 Failing to align baselines of type in adjacent columns of body text. 15 Rivers in justified text. Baselines of all columns of text on a page should align. This creates a pleasing margin of pure white space. Unsightly large spaces between words occur if the line length is too short or the point size of the text too large. 33 Failing to correct bad rags. 16 Inconsistent leading. For centered or non-justified text, avoid obvious shapes (like pyramids, steps, wedges, angles and overly short or long lines). Paragraphs should have the same leading for each line. 17 Indenting the first paragraph. The first paragraph is never indented, subsequent paragraphs are. 34 Failing to use ligatures. unholy: fimish $ holy: finish *. oson... on... cooc0000000o... on ... so ...coo0coo0o0000000on... on... EG- G- ... oon...0000000000c00000 ... oon ... on ... o0oo000000 ...oon... oon. * O 2008 Jim Godfrey, avith Patrick Wilkey as a key cowtributor. thirty-four Cós Sin Two spaces between sentences. 18 Indenting a paragraph too far. Repent of this sin by using only one space. The standard indent for a paragraph is 1 em, not ½ inch. Most software has default tabs set for ½ inch, so adjust the tabs. Dumb quotes instead of smart quotes. 19 Failing to hang punctuation into the margin. Punctuation has less visual weight than letters or numbers. Evil: "Thou shalt not misuse type" $ Good: "Thou shalt not misuse type" Dumb apostrophe instead of a smart apostrophe. Profane: Don't use prime marks § Sacred: Don't use prime marks By the way, apostrophes atways face this way: Pot o' gold. They never face this way: Pot 'o gold. Compensate for this in display text by hanging the punctuation into the margin. 3 20 Failing to use or create fractions. Wicked: 1/2 $ Righteous: 2 4 Failing to tuck punctuation inside quotes. 21 Incorrectly abbreviating AM and PM. Immoral: "I love type so much", she confessed. Unclean: am, AM, A.M., A.M. S Clean: a.m. or AM Chaste: "I love type so much," she testified. 22 Failing to provide margins for type in a box. ugly Failing to kern display type. beautiful Unseemly gaps can impede readability and be distracting to the reader. Adjusting the spacing between letters will assuage your guilt. 23 Faux italic/oblique, bold and small cap type. Impure: Italic § Pure: Italic 6 Using a hyphen instead of an en dash. Use an en dash to indicate a duration of time instead of the word "to": the 8-10 commandments, not 8-10 commandments. Sinful: Bold Virtuous: Bold Unkosher: SMALLCAPS S Kosher: SMALLCAPS 21 Strokes which encroach upon letterforms. Hellacious $ Heavenly 7 Using two hyphens instead of an em dash. An em dash signifies a change in thought-or a parenthetical phrase-within a sentence. 25 Horizontally-scaled type. Too many consecutive hyphens. 8. It is sinful to have more than two hyphens on consecutive lines of type, Unrepentant: Scaled $ Penitent: A condensed typeface 26 Vertically-scaled type. and even that should be avoided. Purgatory: Scaled § Heaven: An extended typeface Large amounts of bodytext in uppercase letters. 27 Negative letterspacing. IT BECOMES REALLY DIFFICULT TO READ. Nd uny madable 10 Large amounts of reversed type ARE HARDER TO READ. Type on a busy background is also unreadable. 28 Bad line breaks in headlines and body text. If you don't break lines for sense, they can be harder to read. 11 Using process colors for body text. It is harder to read, but more importantly, it is hell to register on press. 29 Stacking lowercase letters. 12 Underlining titles instead of italicizing them. Thou Shalt Not: The Holy Bible Thou Shalt: The Korán Vertical baselines are celestial. 30 Failing to indent bulleted lists. 13 Failing to eliminate widows. A widow is a word that sits on a line by itself at the end of a paragraph. Avoid this or risk being cast into a lake of fire and brimstone. • Bulleted lists look better when the second line aligns flush with the first letter of the line above it, instead of with the bullet. 31 Failing to use accent marks. Sinner: No esta aqui § Saint: No está aqui. 14 Failing to eliminate orphans. An orphan is the last line of a paragraph that sits alone at the top of a column or page. Type does not like to be alone. 32 Failing to align baselines of type in adjacent columns of body text. 15 Rivers in justified text. Baselines of all columns of text on a page should align. This creates a pleasing margin of pure white space. Unsightly large spaces between words occur if the line length is too short or the point size of the text too large. 33 Failing to correct bad rags. 16 Inconsistent leading. For centered or non-justified text, avoid obvious shapes (like pyramids, steps, wedges, angles and overly short or long lines). Paragraphs should have the same leading for each line. 17 Indenting the first paragraph. The first paragraph is never indented, subsequent paragraphs are. 34 Failing to use ligatures. unholy: fimish $ holy: finish O 2008 Jim Godfrey, avith Patrick Wilkey as a key cowtributor. thirty-four Cós Sin Two spaces between sentences. 18 Indenting a paragraph too far. Repent of this sin by using only one space. The standard indent for a paragraph is 1 em, not ½ inch. Most software has default tabs set for ½ inch, so adjust the tabs. Dumb quotes instead of smart quotes. 19 Failing to hang punctuation into the margin. Punctuation has less visual weight than letters or numbers. Evil: "Thou shalt not misuse type" $ Good: "Thou shalt not misuse type" Dumb apostrophe instead of a smart apostrophe. Profane: Don't use prime marks § Sacred: Don't use prime marks By the way, apostrophes atways face this way: Pot o' gold. They never face this way: Pot 'o gold. Compensate for this in display text by hanging the punctuation into the margin. 3 20 Failing to use or create fractions. Wicked: 1/2 $ Righteous: 2 4 Failing to tuck punctuation inside quotes. 21 Incorrectly abbreviating AM and PM. Immoral: "I love type so much", she confessed. Unclean: am, AM, A.M., A.M. S Clean: a.m. or AM Chaste: "I love type so much," she testified. 22 Failing to provide margins for type in a box. ugly Failing to kern display type. beautiful Unseemly gaps can impede readability and be distracting to the reader. Adjusting the spacing between letters will assuage your guilt. 23 Faux italic/oblique, bold and small cap type. Impure: Italic § Pure: Italic 6 Using a hyphen instead of an en dash. Use an en dash to indicate a duration of time instead of the word "to": the 8-10 commandments, not 8-10 commandments. Sinful: Bold Virtuous: Bold Unkosher: SMALLCAPS S Kosher: SMALLCAPS 21 Strokes which encroach upon letterforms. Hellacious $ Heavenly 7 Using two hyphens instead of an em dash. An em dash signifies a change in thought-or a parenthetical phrase-within a sentence. 25 Horizontally-scaled type. Too many consecutive hyphens. 8. It is sinful to have more than two hyphens on consecutive lines of type, Unrepentant: Scaled $ Penitent: A condensed typeface 26 Vertically-scaled type. and even that should be avoided. Purgatory: Scaled § Heaven: An extended typeface Large amounts of bodytext in uppercase letters. 27 Negative letterspacing. IT BECOMES REALLY DIFFICULT TO READ. Nd uny madable 10 Large amounts of reversed type ARE HARDER TO READ. Type on a busy background is also unreadable. 28 Bad line breaks in headlines and body text. If you don't break lines for sense, they can be harder to read. 11 Using process colors for body text. It is harder to read, but more importantly, it is hell to register on press. 29 Stacking lowercase letters. 12 Underlining titles instead of italicizing them. Thou Shalt Not: The Holy Bible Thou Shalt: The Korán Vertical baselines are celestial. 30 Failing to indent bulleted lists. 13 Failing to eliminate widows. A widow is a word that sits on a line by itself at the end of a paragraph. Avoid this or risk being cast into a lake of fire and brimstone. • Bulleted lists look better when the second line aligns flush with the first letter of the line above it, instead of with the bullet. 31 Failing to use accent marks. Sinner: No esta aqui § Saint: No está aqui. 14 Failing to eliminate orphans. An orphan is the last line of a paragraph that sits alone at the top of a column or page. Type does not like to be alone. 32 Failing to align baselines of type in adjacent columns of body text. 15 Rivers in justified text. Baselines of all columns of text on a page should align. This creates a pleasing margin of pure white space. Unsightly large spaces between words occur if the line length is too short or the point size of the text too large. 33 Failing to correct bad rags. 16 Inconsistent leading. For centered or non-justified text, avoid obvious shapes (like pyramids, steps, wedges, angles and overly short or long lines). Paragraphs should have the same leading for each line. 17 Indenting the first paragraph. The first paragraph is never indented, subsequent paragraphs are. 34 Failing to use ligatures. unholy: fimish $ holy: finish O 2008 Jim Godfrey, avith Patrick Wilkey as a key cowtributor. thirty-four Cós Sin Two spaces between sentences. 18 Indenting a paragraph too far. Repent of this sin by using only one space. The standard indent for a paragraph is 1 em, not ½ inch. Most software has default tabs set for ½ inch, so adjust the tabs. Dumb quotes instead of smart quotes. 19 Failing to hang punctuation into the margin. Punctuation has less visual weight than letters or numbers. Evil: "Thou shalt not misuse type" $ Good: "Thou shalt not misuse type" Dumb apostrophe instead of a smart apostrophe. Profane: Don't use prime marks § Sacred: Don't use prime marks By the way, apostrophes atways face this way: Pot o' gold. They never face this way: Pot 'o gold. Compensate for this in display text by hanging the punctuation into the margin. 3 20 Failing to use or create fractions. Wicked: 1/2 $ Righteous: 2 4 Failing to tuck punctuation inside quotes. 21 Incorrectly abbreviating AM and PM. Immoral: "I love type so much", she confessed. Unclean: am, AM, A.M., A.M. S Clean: a.m. or AM Chaste: "I love type so much," she testified. 22 Failing to provide margins for type in a box. ugly Failing to kern display type. beautiful Unseemly gaps can impede readability and be distracting to the reader. Adjusting the spacing between letters will assuage your guilt. 23 Faux italic/oblique, bold and small cap type. Impure: Italic § Pure: Italic 6 Using a hyphen instead of an en dash. Use an en dash to indicate a duration of time instead of the word "to": the 8-10 commandments, not 8-10 commandments. Sinful: Bold Virtuous: Bold Unkosher: SMALLCAPS S Kosher: SMALLCAPS 21 Strokes which encroach upon letterforms. Hellacious $ Heavenly 7 Using two hyphens instead of an em dash. An em dash signifies a change in thought-or a parenthetical phrase-within a sentence. 25 Horizontally-scaled type. Too many consecutive hyphens. 8. It is sinful to have more than two hyphens on consecutive lines of type, Unrepentant: Scaled $ Penitent: A condensed typeface 26 Vertically-scaled type. and even that should be avoided. Purgatory: Scaled § Heaven: An extended typeface Large amounts of bodytext in uppercase letters. 27 Negative letterspacing. IT BECOMES REALLY DIFFICULT TO READ. Nd uny madable 10 Large amounts of reversed type ARE HARDER TO READ. Type on a busy background is also unreadable. 28 Bad line breaks in headlines and body text. If you don't break lines for sense, they can be harder to read. 11 Using process colors for body text. It is harder to read, but more importantly, it is hell to register on press. 29 Stacking lowercase letters. 12 Underlining titles instead of italicizing them. Thou Shalt Not: The Holy Bible Thou Shalt: The Korán Vertical baselines are celestial. 30 Failing to indent bulleted lists. 13 Failing to eliminate widows. A widow is a word that sits on a line by itself at the end of a paragraph. Avoid this or risk being cast into a lake of fire and brimstone. • Bulleted lists look better when the second line aligns flush with the first letter of the line above it, instead of with the bullet. 31 Failing to use accent marks. Sinner: No esta aqui § Saint: No está aqui. 14 Failing to eliminate orphans. An orphan is the last line of a paragraph that sits alone at the top of a column or page. Type does not like to be alone. 32 Failing to align baselines of type in adjacent columns of body text. 15 Rivers in justified text. Baselines of all columns of text on a page should align. This creates a pleasing margin of pure white space. Unsightly large spaces between words occur if the line length is too short or the point size of the text too large. 33 Failing to correct bad rags. 16 Inconsistent leading. For centered or non-justified text, avoid obvious shapes (like pyramids, steps, wedges, angles and overly short or long lines). Paragraphs should have the same leading for each line. 17 Indenting the first paragraph. The first paragraph is never indented, subsequent paragraphs are. 34 Failing to use ligatures. unholy: fimish $ holy: finish O 2008 Jim Godfrey, avith Patrick Wilkey as a key cowtributor. thirty-four Cós Sin Two spaces between sentences. 18 Indenting a paragraph too far. Repent of this sin by using only one space. The standard indent for a paragraph is 1 em, not ½ inch. Most software has default tabs set for ½ inch, so adjust the tabs. Dumb quotes instead of smart quotes. 19 Failing to hang punctuation into the margin. Punctuation has less visual weight than letters or numbers. Evil: "Thou shalt not misuse type" $ Good: "Thou shalt not misuse type" Dumb apostrophe instead of a smart apostrophe. Profane: Don't use prime marks § Sacred: Don't use prime marks By the way, apostrophes atways face this way: Pot o' gold. They never face this way: Pot 'o gold. Compensate for this in display text by hanging the punctuation into the margin. 3 20 Failing to use or create fractions. Wicked: 1/2 $ Righteous: 2 4 Failing to tuck punctuation inside quotes. 21 Incorrectly abbreviating AM and PM. Immoral: "I love type so much", she confessed. Unclean: am, AM, A.M., A.M. S Clean: a.m. or AM Chaste: "I love type so much," she testified. 22 Failing to provide margins for type in a box. ugly Failing to kern display type. beautiful Unseemly gaps can impede readability and be distracting to the reader. Adjusting the spacing between letters will assuage your guilt. 23 Faux italic/oblique, bold and small cap type. Impure: Italic § Pure: Italic 6 Using a hyphen instead of an en dash. Use an en dash to indicate a duration of time instead of the word "to": the 8-10 commandments, not 8-10 commandments. Sinful: Bold Virtuous: Bold Unkosher: SMALLCAPS S Kosher: SMALLCAPS 21 Strokes which encroach upon letterforms. Hellacious $ Heavenly 7 Using two hyphens instead of an em dash. An em dash signifies a change in thought-or a parenthetical phrase-within a sentence. 25 Horizontally-scaled type. Too many consecutive hyphens. 8. It is sinful to have more than two hyphens on consecutive lines of type, Unrepentant: Scaled $ Penitent: A condensed typeface 26 Vertically-scaled type. and even that should be avoided. Purgatory: Scaled § Heaven: An extended typeface Large amounts of bodytext in uppercase letters. 27 Negative letterspacing. IT BECOMES REALLY DIFFICULT TO READ. Nd uny madable 10 Large amounts of reversed type ARE HARDER TO READ. Type on a busy background is also unreadable. 28 Bad line breaks in headlines and body text. If you don't break lines for sense, they can be harder to read. 11 Using process colors for body text. It is harder to read, but more importantly, it is hell to register on press. 29 Stacking lowercase letters. 12 Underlining titles instead of italicizing them. Thou Shalt Not: The Holy Bible Thou Shalt: The Korán Vertical baselines are celestial. 30 Failing to indent bulleted lists. 13 Failing to eliminate widows. A widow is a word that sits on a line by itself at the end of a paragraph. Avoid this or risk being cast into a lake of fire and brimstone. • Bulleted lists look better when the second line aligns flush with the first letter of the line above it, instead of with the bullet. 31 Failing to use accent marks. Sinner: No esta aqui § Saint: No está aqui. 14 Failing to eliminate orphans. An orphan is the last line of a paragraph that sits alone at the top of a column or page. Type does not like to be alone. 32 Failing to align baselines of type in adjacent columns of body text. 15 Rivers in justified text. Baselines of all columns of text on a page should align. This creates a pleasing margin of pure white space. Unsightly large spaces between words occur if the line length is too short or the point size of the text too large. 33 Failing to correct bad rags. 16 Inconsistent leading. For centered or non-justified text, avoid obvious shapes (like pyramids, steps, wedges, angles and overly short or long lines). Paragraphs should have the same leading for each line. 17 Indenting the first paragraph. The first paragraph is never indented, subsequent paragraphs are. 34 Failing to use ligatures. unholy: fimish $ holy: finish O 2008 Jim Godfrey, avith Patrick Wilkey as a key cowtributor. thirty-four Cós Sin Two spaces between sentences. 18 Indenting a paragraph too far. Repent of this sin by using only one space. The standard indent for a paragraph is 1 em, not ½ inch. Most software has default tabs set for ½ inch, so adjust the tabs. Dumb quotes instead of smart quotes. 19 Failing to hang punctuation into the margin. Punctuation has less visual weight than letters or numbers. Evil: "Thou shalt not misuse type" $ Good: "Thou shalt not misuse type" Dumb apostrophe instead of a smart apostrophe. Profane: Don't use prime marks § Sacred: Don't use prime marks By the way, apostrophes atways face this way: Pot o' gold. They never face this way: Pot 'o gold. Compensate for this in display text by hanging the punctuation into the margin. 3 20 Failing to use or create fractions. Wicked: 1/2 $ Righteous: 2 4 Failing to tuck punctuation inside quotes. 21 Incorrectly abbreviating AM and PM. Immoral: "I love type so much", she confessed. Unclean: am, AM, A.M., A.M. S Clean: a.m. or AM Chaste: "I love type so much," she testified. 22 Failing to provide margins for type in a box. ugly Failing to kern display type. beautiful Unseemly gaps can impede readability and be distracting to the reader. Adjusting the spacing between letters will assuage your guilt. 23 Faux italic/oblique, bold and small cap type. Impure: Italic § Pure: Italic 6 Using a hyphen instead of an en dash. Use an en dash to indicate a duration of time instead of the word "to": the 8-10 commandments, not 8-10 commandments. Sinful: Bold Virtuous: Bold Unkosher: SMALLCAPS S Kosher: SMALLCAPS 21 Strokes which encroach upon letterforms. Hellacious $ Heavenly 7 Using two hyphens instead of an em dash. An em dash signifies a change in thought-or a parenthetical phrase-within a sentence. 25 Horizontally-scaled type. Too many consecutive hyphens. 8. It is sinful to have more than two hyphens on consecutive lines of type, Unrepentant: Scaled $ Penitent: A condensed typeface 26 Vertically-scaled type. and even that should be avoided. Purgatory: Scaled § Heaven: An extended typeface Large amounts of bodytext in uppercase letters. 27 Negative letterspacing. IT BECOMES REALLY DIFFICULT TO READ. Nd uny madable 10 Large amounts of reversed type ARE HARDER TO READ. Type on a busy background is also unreadable. 28 Bad line breaks in headlines and body text. If you don't break lines for sense, they can be harder to read. 11 Using process colors for body text. It is harder to read, but more importantly, it is hell to register on press. 29 Stacking lowercase letters. 12 Underlining titles instead of italicizing them. Thou Shalt Not: The Holy Bible Thou Shalt: The Korán Vertical baselines are celestial. 30 Failing to indent bulleted lists. 13 Failing to eliminate widows. A widow is a word that sits on a line by itself at the end of a paragraph. Avoid this or risk being cast into a lake of fire and brimstone. • Bulleted lists look better when the second line aligns flush with the first letter of the line above it, instead of with the bullet. 31 Failing to use accent marks. Sinner: No esta aqui § Saint: No está aqui. 14 Failing to eliminate orphans. An orphan is the last line of a paragraph that sits alone at the top of a column or page. Type does not like to be alone. 32 Failing to align baselines of type in adjacent columns of body text. 15 Rivers in justified text. Baselines of all columns of text on a page should align. This creates a pleasing margin of pure white space. Unsightly large spaces between words occur if the line length is too short or the point size of the text too large. 33 Failing to correct bad rags. 16 Inconsistent leading. For centered or non-justified text, avoid obvious shapes (like pyramids, steps, wedges, angles and overly short or long lines). Paragraphs should have the same leading for each line. 17 Indenting the first paragraph. The first paragraph is never indented, subsequent paragraphs are. 34 Failing to use ligatures. unholy: fimish $ holy: finish O 2008 Jim Godfrey, avith Patrick Wilkey as a key cowtributor.