How to design punctuation – theory, technique and guides?

Jay Langly
Jay Langly Posts: 33
edited July 2013 in Technique and Theory
I'm just beginning to design a typeface. So far I've managed to make my way through the alphabet and numbers. Now I'm stumped by the punctuation.

Does anyone have any guide, tips or resources on designing these? I would especially like to know if there is any kind of logic, or best practices for the sizing, placement, spacing and so on of punctuation. A testing text would be nice too especially for the punctuation in use (English is my only language!), I have tried to look at the typefaces I have but there doesn't seem to be strong consistency!

thanks,
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Comments

  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,207
    I recommend setting text from novels, with lots of dialogue, in a variety of typefaces.
  • George Thomas
    George Thomas Posts: 645
    Microsoft has some good general guidelines that may help you.

    http://www.microsoft.com/typography/developers/fdsspec/overview.aspx
  • Deleted Account
    Deleted Account Posts: 739
    If you have an i, the dot, is what starts the punctuation in my stuff.

    But it is usually a little too small (and high), for a period... then the comma has to look about as good as the period does with UC, lc, and figs,, and then the MS doc... And then punctuation leads to accents.
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,186
    A lot of beginners make their punctuation marks too small, so my advice would be to make them large enough that that look too big, and then scale back.
  • Jay Langly
    Jay Langly Posts: 33
    Thanks, that Microsoft general guideline looks really great. I'm having trouble with vertically positioning too, for example where these marks should go:

    [ ] { } ( ) $^* †‡·¶ ¦° « ‹ › »

    So far I am just following precedents in similar typefaces.
  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,207
    edited July 2013
    One needs to take a logical position (after studying the field), based on in situ typesetting and one’s own assessment.
    For instance, I match the dollar symbol to the default figure style, according to whether that is lining or oldstyle.
    I also make the “S” part of $ without “overshoots”, because the bar makes it look tall anyway.
    But that may not be appropriate to a didone style or Thin weight.

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