What height do you design these at? I've seen a few schemes and am curious about the different rationales. I understand straight quotes (typewriter quotes) aren't
'supposed' to be used, and are a result of conserving keys on the typewriter keyboard. But since people do use them and software doesn't always automatically correct them they are here to stay. Shouldn't they reflect the curly quotes?
Height of quotes in relation to each other
1. Straight quotes taller than curly quotes:
I don't understand what's going on here.
2. Straight quotes same height as curly quotes
This I can understand, these are all aligned to the cap or ascender height.
3. Straight quotes lower than curly quotes:
I understand that the straight quotes are aligned to the cap height and the curly quotes are aligned to the ascender height (or thereabouts).
Height of quotes in relation to cap height and ascender height
I'm just guessing here as to the rationale:
1. Quotes aligned to the cap height
Looks smooth at the start of sentences, for dialogue? Less disruptive?
2. Quotes aligned to the ascender height
Slightly more emphasis, anchors the height of the ascender?
3. Quotes heigher than anything
Why?
Comments
On the other hand, you are right in saying that a lot users don't know this and mis-use the straight quotes. How to deal with that is up to you.
I figure that the only reason they are vertical (or “neutral”, according to Unicode) is because they originated in serifed styles, which have a left or right bias. But this is not necessary in sans fonts:
But perhaps there is some grammatical reason for verticality that I am unaware of?
Interesting approach, Nick, surrendering to usage. What could possibly be a case where the straight quotes look weird when angled?
Ahh, my apologies. I didn't know there was a separate mark for that. Do you include it in your typefaces, though?
I’ve taken to making them not quite straight, trying to strike a balance between making them look a little more acceptable when used “naively” for quotation marks or primes, while still preserving their core identity.
Depending on the language and the keyboard the straight quotation mark in typewriters was used for different purposes. Some examples taken from Mackay, The typewriting dictionary, 49–50 (from top to bottom, diaeresis, ditto mark, exclamation, feet, inches, minutes and seconds).
However the exclamation mark and the diaeresis were often included in the keyboard.
I guess is a matter of style to use straight of curly quotes today. Actually, in Hebrew straight quotations marks are more common.