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Typesetting Checklist

This document provides a checklist for typesetting best practices. It includes recommendations to break headings by sense rather than using single conjunctions or prepositions on their own line. It also recommends using curly quotation marks and apostrophes, true fractions, ligatures, italics instead of underlines, kerning pairs, and old style figures in text. The checklist provides guidance on punctuation, hyphenation, kerning, spelling, and other typographic details to ensure high quality typesetting.

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jondoyledesign
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326 views2 pages

Typesetting Checklist

This document provides a checklist for typesetting best practices. It includes recommendations to break headings by sense rather than using single conjunctions or prepositions on their own line. It also recommends using curly quotation marks and apostrophes, true fractions, ligatures, italics instead of underlines, kerning pairs, and old style figures in text. The checklist provides guidance on punctuation, hyphenation, kerning, spelling, and other typographic details to ensure high quality typesetting.

Uploaded by

jondoyledesign
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Typesetting Checklist

Break heading material by sense. Conjunctions or prepositions seldom need to occupy single
lines; usually sense and form are served by attaching them to their respective clauses.

Set only one word space after terminal punctuation (. ? ! ) in text.

Use ‘curly’ quotation marks and apostrophes; never the ‘minute/second’ symbols (' ")
or the French ‘acute’ (´).

Use all available ligatures (ff, fi, fl, ffi, ffl).

Replace underlines with italic (usually).

Use ‘true’ fractions when available (1⁄4 1⁄2 3⁄4 1⁄8 3⁄8 5⁄8 7⁄8 1⁄3 2⁄3).

Use all available kerning pairs.

Do not indent the first paragraph after a heading or section break unless some particular
formal feature of the design requires it.

Avoid the use of ALL- CAPS in text. Use true   instead – if available;
or downsize the caps one or two points. Remember to letterspace these words slightly as
specified below.

Use ‘old style’ figures (  ) in text and aligning figures (1234567890) when mixed
with all-caps material.

Never (or almost never) l e t t e r s p a c e lower case in order to justify text.

Slightly letterspace (approximately ⁄ to 1⁄2 em) all-caps (ABCDE)


and small caps (  ).

Use tight, even word spacing, especially in justified settings; avoid ‘ponds’ and ‘rivers’.
Carefully set and properly use hyphens (-), en dashes (–) and em dashes (—). Hyphens are
used for word breaks and for hyphenated words. En dashes are used in dates and to show
continuity, e.g.  – . Em dashes are the typographic translation of the double
hyphen (--) in typewriting. Adjust the ‘baseline shift’ of these characters according to
context. Adjust the horizontal scale for over-long em dashes.

Adjust the ‘baseline shift’ of parentheses, brackets, slashes and quotation marks according
to context.

Eliminate unnecessary punctuation, especially in display settings. Colons and commas are
often made redundant by line breaks or changes in style of heading material.

Use single quotation marks (‘’) rather than double (“”) throughout document if appropriate.

‘Hang’ quotation marks where appropriate (in InDesign: Type: Story: Optical Margin
Alignment).

Check for widows and orphans.

Check hyphenation and rag.

Check spelling.

Check kerning around dashes, slashes and italic /regular shifts, as well as between initials and
periods (i.e. J.J.).

Make sure that you consistently employ ‘0 (zero) text inset’ in Quark
(Item: Modify: Text Inset).

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