Uppercase dotted I and J in French football jerseys

Jim Utz

I've been watching a lot of international football (soccer) these days and noticed this. In the all caps names of the players on their jerseys all the I and Js have a dot over them. I've only seen this in the French league. Is this just affectation or is there a real reason for it?

Yves Michel

Hello Jim,

I'm a French native speaker.
I never saw a dot over the I or J uppercase letters (except in Turkish).
Must be the mad idea of a jersey designer (we've seen worst in jersey design these days!)

I find it normal to encourage the use of accents on capitals but the dots on I and J are definitely not accents in French.

Affectation ! You're quite right.

Jim Utz

Thank you Yves.

Mark Simonson

I have seen that affectation in a few French things: Lettering in French comics (Mœbius, Asterix) and the movie titles of Jean-Luc Godard.

Marc Oxborrow

Indeed, @Mark Simonson - when Atelier Carvalho Bernau released an all-caps Godard tribute font in 2010, they included dotted a dotted I and J.

Yves Michel

In French litterature, there is an expression "licence poétique" (poetic licence) when you break the rules of French language. 
Let's qualify this as a "graphic licence", which is more constructive than "affectation"!

André G. Isaak

I'm not sure that dotted uppercase I's count as a "French" thing. I've seen them in a variety of display faces of non-French origins (though frequently the top of the dot is aligned with the cap height)

Nick Shinn

Special <locl> coding for Turkish!

Russell McGorman

I'm working on a typeface with dotted Uppercase I and J (and IJ), but it's a square dot and they align with cap-height. 

(Note to self: Keep French football jersey designers in mind for marketing purposes.)