“Time for ‘the talk’”:
You may notice that you’re changing. You’re noticing different letterforms. You may feel different around them. Don’t be embarrassed; these feelings are natural. A few basics can help you through the awkward years.That’s an excerpt from FontShop’s Meet Your Type: A Field Guide to Love and Typography. It’s a free PDF, one of nine you can find via the link.
I like the way typographers (or at least some typographers) are able to explain, patiently and without condescension, things that are ridiculously obvious to them. From another FontShop PDF, Erik Spiekermann’s Typo Tips: Seven Rules for Better Typography:
Quotes can have different shapes. They generally look like “this”, and can be remembered as beginning and ending quotes by thinking of “66” and “99”. Beginning quotes are found on the Mac by pressing option-[; closing quotes, option-shift-[. The apostrophe is simply a raised comma, the shape of a ’9 in most typefaces. It is identical to the closing single quote, while the open single quote looks like a ‘6. Beginning single quotes are found on the Mac by pressing option-]; the apostrophe and closing single quote, option-shift-].See how nice? May all teachers be that patient.
A related post
Helvetica (Erik Spiekermann: “I’m obviously a typomaniac.”)
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