It Ain't an Apostrophe

Quickly now: write down five feet four and one-half inches without using any words.

If you wrote 5’ 4”, go to the back of the class. A curly apostrophe is wrong wrong wrong.

A curly apostrophe looks like this: ’

Reading an amusing Washington Post discussion of the topic recently, I found myself nodding in agreement without exactly knowing why. So I turned to Doctor Google, who led me to an utterly charming website called Butterick’s Practical Typography ... and the answer.

I won't paraphrase. Matthew Butterick says it so much better.

"Foot and inch marks," Mr. Butterick writes, "also known as minute and second marks or prime and double prime marks, depending on what they’re labeling—are not curly. Use straight quotes for these marks."

By straight quotes he means ' for feet; and " for inches. But there's more:

"Typography purists would point out that proper foot and inch marks have a slight northeast-to-southwest slope to them," Butterick goes on to say. Straight quotes are "the most reliable tools for the [typographical] job":

118° 19′ 36.9″ = purity

"You can italicize the straight quotes ifou want an even better approximation of sloped foot and inch marks," he continues:

118° 19' 36.9" = bonus points

Then, not content to zing us with italicize, he pounces:

118° 19’ 36.9” = wrong [my emphasis]

It's a small point. Microscopically small. But maybe more important than you think.

Take Fun with Dick and Jane, the first-grade primer from which I learned to read. "Dick and Jane" was set in a classic typeface ("font") called Century Schoolbook.

Century Schoolbook is super easy to read. For one thing, its letters are large and rounded, not easily confused with one another. For another, each letter sports serifs, those little dinguses on the tips. Studies show that text with serifs is easier to read than text without them.

A "P" with serifs looks like this: P

... and ...

A "P" without serifs looks like this: P

The Wikipedia entry on the "Dick and Jane" books notes many elements that made them useful to beginning readers. Among these: each page introduced only one new word, and each individual story only five new words. But Wikipedia overlooks typography.

I'm nuts about typography, in case you haven't figured that out. It's the subtle factor working in the background on your unconscious mind. It sets mood, tone, and so much more. Here's what I mean:

Arial is clean, straightforward, just right for headlines. Arial means business.

Times New Roman, the font of the New York Times, is the most common text font. Its serifs convey readability while its compression allows for a lot of words to the page.

Courier New is classic typewriter font. It breathes first-draft urgency.

And Comic Sans? The name says it all, no?

There's a lot more to know about typography. It's been a source of fascination since the first cave-person carved the first letter into the first stone. Oodles of books have been written on the subject and mega-oodles of type fonts exist. With the advent of computer design, new fonts emerge every day.

Go ahead, dip your toe in. Click on https://practicaltypography.com and let Matthew Butterick be your guide.

Frank S Joseph Author

P.S. To Do Justice is published! Book #3 of my "Chicago Trilogy" is available for order NOW. Drop me an email (frank@frankjoseph.com) and I'll tell you how.

P.P.S. And YOU are invited to a launch party! It's next Sunday, 4/21, at Elaine's Literary Cafe, 208 Queen St., Alexandria VA 22314 in the Alexandria Waterfront District. Elaine's owner, thriller novelist Jeffrey James Higgins, makes Elaine's a special hangout for readers and writers throughout the DMV. He will be my interlocutor at the event. I'll probably read a bit from the novel too. The fun goes from 1-3 p.m. in the upstairs party room, but show up at 12 to sample Elaine's Mediterranean-inflected cuisine chat, and buy autographed copies of my novel.

P.P.S. Space is limited at Elaine's. RSVP to frank@frankjoseph.com, please.