TypeTalk: Counter Intelligence

TypeTalk is a monthly question-and-answer column on typography. You can send your question to [email protected], and if we publish it, you’ll receive one Official Creativepro.com T-Shirt.


Euro Confusion
Q. How do I type the euro symbol in File Info in Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Windows? When I press the Alt Key +4, it jumps from the description window to the ITPC window and won’t insert the euro symbol.
A. I see by your email address that you’re in Ireland, so by the Alt key you probably mean the AltGr key on a European PC, which doesn’t exist on a typical US PC keyboard. You get the euro characters on Windows using AltGr + 4 on UK, Irish, and some Latvian keyboards. (Most other European keyboards use AltGr + e instead.)
But the AltGr is also interpreted as Ctrl+Alt, which is creating a problem with the File Info dialog. This dialog is interpreting the AltGr as Ctrl, which in turn causes the shortcut to switch panels. Eg Ctrl + 4 will switch to panel number 4. So AltGr + 4 will switch to panel 4.
Here’s a workaround for getting the euro into that dialog:
Hold down the Alt key (left Alt key, not the AltGr on the right) and type 0128 using the numeric keypad. Use the regular AltGr +4 key combination in Notepad and copy/paste this character to the File Info dialog.
Seeing Double… Spaces, That Is
Q. Which is correct: single or double space between sentences (i.e., after periods)? Doesn’t it depend on the font being used? If so, how should one gauge/control the correct spacing?
A. If you’re talking about typewriters (you know, those dusty machines in the corner of antique shops), the answer is double space between sentences. But when you’re talking about setting type on a computer, a single space between sentences is correct.
The explanation for the difference lies in the kind of font used: monospaced or proportional. Typewriter fonts are monospaced, which means that every letter, whether it is a wide letter such as m or a narrow letter like i, takes up the same amount of space. Since this creates a very open-looking spacing, two spaces between sentences achieves a clearer visual separation.
On the other hand, nearly all computer fonts (Courier is one exception most people know) have proportional spacing, which means that the width of the characters and the spacing surrounding them are in proportion to each other. Since proportional spacing results in a more even, balanced appearance, a single space is enough to create the necessary visual separation between sentences (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Upper: The use of double spaces to separate sentences was the accepted style for monospaced typewriter faces, such as Courier, as shown in the top example. Center: Don’t use double word spaces with proportional type, such as Felbridge shown here, as it creates lots of holes in the text. Lower: This example has single spacing between the sentences, resulting in better color and texture.
Since typewriters are rarely used today, you’d think this confusion would have died out long ago. The primary culprit is typing class, which often still teaches typewriter conventions, such as double spaces between sentences, double hyphens instead of dashes, and the like; thus the confusion and often emphatic differences of opinion.
AM or a.m. Protocol
Q. What is the correct typographic treatment for a.m. and p.m. after time designations?
A. These abbreviations, which refer to ante meridiem (before noon) and post meridiem (after noon), are common in writing and typeset copy. According to The Chicago Manual of Style, the most common (and accepted) practice is to use lowercase characters with periods, and no space between them. You can also set the abbreviations in small caps, in which case periods aren’t necessary (Figure 2).

Figure 2. These examples, set in Enclave and Gill Sans, illustrate two ways of setting a.m. and p.m. When using the small cap treatment, you might want to reduce the space between the numeral and the small caps.
Font Embedding
Q. I have an InDesign CS3 document with a small amount of Minion Pro text. An Illustrator map placed in the InDesign file includes Frutiger type. I found, by chance, that the Frutiger Italic font used on the map wasn’t activated on my system, so some map text wasn’t appearing in the InDesign file as it should.
The Illustrator file was saved in .ai format, rather than .eps, with the assumption that .ai is superior with regard to transparency. Unfortunately, .ai doesn’t give an option for embedding a font, while .eps does. The font usage box in InDesign doesn’t list embedded fonts. InDesign didn’t warn me that a font was missing when I created a PDF from the file. If the font had not been embedded (if I’d used .eps rather than .ai), I suspect that InDesign would have warned me.
Do you have any solutions to this? It’s a potentially dangerous situation, since so much is output to PDF these days.
A. According to Scott Citron, designer and Adobe Certified Instructor, “See the screenshot from the Save dialog in Illustrator CS3 (Figure 3). I believe Illustrator CS and CS2 allow the same kind of embedding. If, on the other hand, Create PDF Compatible File is unchecked, font embedding won’t occur. One final caveat: According to the application itself, it embeds only fonts with appropriate permission bits. This means that Illustrator won’t embed those fonts whose permission bits aren’t enabled because of restrictions placed by the font’s publisher.”

Figure 3. This screenshot from Adobe Illustrator CS3 shows font embedding options.
Grotesk Sounds Grotesque!
Q. Do you know the origins of the term “Grotesque” or “Grotesk”?
A. There are two schools of thought on this subject. One is that “Grotesque” (“Grotesk” in German) was the name given to the sans serif typeface designs that originated in England in the 19th century because they seemed so unusual compared to the serif designs of that time. The other explanation is that the term originated from the Italian word “grottesco” and was a reflection of the 19th-century craze for antiquity (and subsequent naming conventions) prevalent at that time.

Figure 4. Akzidenz-Grotesk, a forerunner of Helvetica and Univers, was first released in 1896 by H. Berthold AG. Additional weights and versions were added by Berthold in the 1950s. Monotype Grotesque, released in 1926, is a large typeface family with multiple widths, from condensed to extended. Bureau Grotesque was originally released by Font Bureau in 1989, with additional weights added in 1993.


Love type? Want to know more? Ilene Strizver conducts her acclaimed Gourmet Typography workshops internationally. For more information on attending one or bringing it to your company, organization, or school, go to her site, call The Type Studio at 203-227-5929, or email Ilene at [email protected]. Sign up for her e-newsletter at www.thetypestudio.com.

Ilene Strizver is a noted typographic educator, author, designer and founder of The Type Studio in Westport, Connecticut. Her book, Type Rules! The designer’s guide to professional typography, is now in its 4th edition.
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