Case-sensitive baseline quote marks?

Adam Ladd
Adam Ladd Posts: 264
edited November 2019 in Technique and Theory
For an all caps treatment, is it acceptable to shift the baseline quote marks ( „ ) up so that the very bottom of the character is sitting on the baseline (rather than hanging below, like a comma)? I wouldn't normally consider approaching it this way, but my display font is very condensed/tall and is meant to be tightly stacked and spaced, so this may help.
I haven't seen it done before, so I don't know if a native reader may frown upon it, but given that this is a display face, there's more liberty.

Comments

  • I'm not such a native reader, but it seems to me that if you want tight vertical spacing that such an approach would require the comma to be handled in the same way. If they are handled differently, that would seem very weird to me. Whether it would be weird to have them sitting on the baseline is hard to answer without seeing an actual sample.
  • I hear you André, thanks for bring that up. Good point. I was playing with the comma some in that regard, but haven't fully resolved yet. So I'll have to consider it more.