by Jan White
The monks also saw that they had to do something to distinguish some of their hand-drawn wiggles, so you could tell an “i” from an “n” and an “m.” Hence the little dot above the “i.” Hence also the phrase “Dot the i’s and cross the t’s”
Scribe at desk in his scriptorium. From Aurelius Augustinus’ De Trinitate de Civitate Dei, Basle, Johann Amerbach, 1489.
PI CHARACTERS are characters like math symbols, bullets, etc. Collections are assembled into pi fonts. Custom-made symbols are sorts.
PUNCTUATION helps readers to understand by by identifying the relationships of words to each other. The arbitrary rules to which it conforms represents agreement among literate people about how to interpret visible marks as if it were audible language. Here are some of the marks:
PERIOD. A longer pause marking the end of a a sentence (i.e., full stop—as it is called in England). The word period comes from the Greek PERIODOS, cycle. In mediæval times it was also called a jot, from Greek IOTA. Don’t use them at the end of headlines or other display, because they discourage the reader from continuing, since they have already reached “the end.”
COMMA. A brief pause, separating thoughts from each other, makes sentences less unwieldy. The word comma comes from the Greek KOMMA, segment or clause, indicating part of a sentence. In mediæval England it was also called a tittle, from latin TTTULUS, label or title. In early manuscipts commas appeared as a slash / or solidus, then shrank to today’s size. (Commas started in England in 1521.)
Hence: “Not a jot nor a tittle”
SEMICOLON. A break in continuity greater than that implied by a comma, but not as final as a period. It separates items in a series when commas would not be clear enough, or two main clauses in a compound sentence. (In England first in 1569.)
ELLIPSES. Three dots set closer than three separate periods. They indicate the unfinished end of a spoken sentence or omission of words from quoted material.
COLON. A divider that introduces a different sort of material, such as a list, extract, or replaces such expressions as for instance, namely; for example, that is, etc.
APOSTROPHE. Indicates the possessive case of a noun. It is an elision of the word his (John his hat became John’s hat.)
HYPHEN. Links words. Knowing when to use it (or not) is tricky because it can affect meaning and violate editing rules. Don’t guess, don’t assume, but check a good up-to-date dictionary.
EM-DASH. A long dash that is highly visible. It represents a significant change in tone or a pregnant pause. It can also be used in lieu of parentheses to set off a clause. Its visibility—and thus its power—is increased if a word-space is inserted before and after — thus. (The “em” is a measurement, as wide as the height of the type size being used. So, 12 points wide in 12-point type.)
EN-DASH. Wider than the hyphen, but only half the length of the Em-dash. It is used mainly to represents missing, but implied, items in a series such as 2-4 where it represents 2 through 4.
SLASH, virgule, solidus, shilling mark, diagonal, stands for the word per ($3/100), indicates choice (yes/no), separates fractions (1/2) or dates (2/30/2003). Substitute for a slash is the VERTICAL BAR.
ASTERISK, from Greek ASTERISKOS, little star, splat in computerese. Signals a footnote; represents letters left out in questionable words (s* *t); and born when it precedes a date (*1928).
DAGGER or obelisk from Greek OBELOS, skewer, means died when followed by a date (†1492). Normally it is a footnote reference mark.
DOUBLE DAGGER is a footnote reference mark. The normal footnote reference mark sequence is as follows: * † ‡ ¶ § #.
PARAGRAPH, pilcrow or blind P, represents just that: a paragraph. The blind P name comes from the fact that the bowl is blacked in some fonts.
SECTION denotes a subdivision of a paragraph in legal citations (¶7 §2.3), or a part of a chapter in a book. Look at the next page to see what this would look like blown up big.
POUND also crosshatch, double hashmark, octothorp, or crunch stands for space in printing; also the word number if it precedes (#3), or pound if it follows (3#) the figure.
Here are some of the commonest math signs on the keyboard with a few of their origins. (They didn’t just happen.) For many more and details see the Chicago Manual of Style, but in the context of this book, see them instead as abstract shapes to trigger graphic imagination always ready to be taken out of for a walk…
PLUS (and in latin ET) by Johan Widman, 15th century. Easier to understand than the Egyptian hieroglyphic legs that meant plus when walking to the left, minus walking to the right.
MINUS. Another Johan Widman invention.
PLUS OR MINUS.
EQUAL TO, first used by Robert Record, Welsh scientist, in his Whetstone of Witte, 1557. He said, “Noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle than 2 parallel lines.”
NOT EQUAL TO (diagonal slash is “not”).
INFINITY, John Wallis, English mathematician, 1655.
MULTIPLIED BY, invented in 1631 by Wiliam Oughtred, Scottish Episcopalian minister and mathematician.
DIVIDED BY, probably started as a fraction line (dash) identified by a couple of dots.
SQUARE ROOT, a corruption of the 16th century German letter r (R for radix, root).
INTEGRAL, introduced in 1684 by Gottfried Leibniz, German mathematician, in his Calculus.
PI, 3.14159265.…
SIMILAR TO
NEARLY EQUAL TO
GREATER THAN
GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO
SMALLER THAN
SMALLER THAN OR EQUAL TO
LESS THAN
QUESTIO, latin: I ask. The space-hungry scribes shortened it to QO, and wrote the Q above the O. The Q turned into a squiggle and the O shrank into a small dot.
Wouldn’t it be great to have an INTERROBANG for those rare occasions when the text screams for a combination of an! with?
Use “bangs” sparingly
In Spanish, readers are warned at the start of a sentence that it will end with a! or a.? by an ! or ¿
The latin IO was the expletive ancient Romans would use when they were sufficiently moved to say Joy or Wowee or words to that effect. The manuscripts scribes transcribed (from scribere, latin, to write) were done on expensive parchment* so they did their best to save space. They fused the IO by putting the I above the O. In short order, the hole in the tiny o got filled up with ink and then it shrank to a mere dot of its old self. Hence the exclamation point—no kidding IO.
* Re-used parchment manuscripts are called palimpsests.
All the dominant punctuation marks on these pages are in Pistilli Roman
Ampersand
ET, latin for “and,” scribbled by scribes and embellished by type designers. Result: the character with the most delight and graphic variety in the font. A resource of great richness if used with courage and flamboyance. (“Ampersand” may come from “and-per se-and” so taught at school in 19th century.) “Etc” is latin: ET CETERA, “and others.”
(Alternates: the word “and” and the mathematical plus.)
Parentheses
(“parens”) both enclose and separate. They define subsidiary phrases within the flow of text. (The second degree of enclosure [parens within parens] are brackets.) Braces are the third degree of enclosure, thus:
48 pt Trump roman, ital, bold, bold ital.
Braces: What graceful shapes they reveal when they are blown up big enough so you can discern their details—and each type font has its own version. The group above are Trump, the text font used in this book.
The percent symbol has nothing to do with BRACES, but the moustache does. An obvious, unsubtle visual pun, put here just as another example of exploiting shape to trigger thinking.
Quote marks have interesting shapes. The bigger they are, the louder they shout the message. And they also imply permitted eavesdropping. So they can be used to great effect in attracting attention to a thought (if it is worthy of it).
The usual usage decrees tha
t the quote start with 66 and end with 99.
Sometimes the 99 is flopped left to right to start the quote.
Quotes contained within other quotes demand single marks.
For display, any placement is acceptable.
“Good.” Word invented for the movie Mary Poppins.
Quotes originated as upside-down commas to start and, doubled apostrophes to close the quotation, so they are called inverted commas in the U.K.
French, German, Spanish use guillemets like these, pointing outwards, sometimes inwards. Other languages have their own ways of marking quotations.
The dollar sign is probably derived from the 16th-century sign for Spanish Pesos: a “P” with a small “s” added. The P was simplified to a stroke, the s overlaid on it. Some $ signs have two vertical strokes, some just one. Or maybe it came from “8,” the doubloon or pirates’ “piece of eight” which was a coin worth two pesetas, each peseta four reals. “Dollar” is a mispronunciation of “Joachimsthaler,” abbreviated to thaler. It was the widely circulated 16th-century silver coin minted in the St. Joachim Valley (Thal, German, valley) in Bohemia.
Piggy-bank has nothing to do with swine: in mediæval England, cheap earhenware pots were called Pigpots. Some people hid coins in them, hence “pig-bank.” An anonymous imaginative and enterprising potter gave them the shape of their name.
The cap-L with crossbar—£—is the symbol for the British Pound. L from Libra, Latin for pound weight. Money used to be weighed, not counted: e.g., a pound of sterling silver. The lb with crossbar is the pound as a weight.
Breaking up text
People will happily read great literature, even if the pages are just grey cliffs of type. Lesser material probably needs help. Most effective enticement: short bits, because they apparently demand less commitment of effort and time. Besides, they welcome entry into the text elsewhere than the official beginning. (Readers hunt and peck.) Use each subhead, cross head, sidehead, initial, quote, or whatnot as a hook to pull them in with. Therefore bait it with something fascinating: a visual trick such as an interesting-looking initial spot, or—better—a provocative thought. Best of all: words that promise more goodies in the text that follows.
PAY NO ATTENTION to whal the text or subheads on these pages actually say. They make no sense, because they are just “dummy type” or “greeking.” Each sentence is another version of THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER A LAZY DOG, which uses every letter in the alphabet. Do look at the patterns they illustrate. And the old woodcuts? Just fillers for the fun of it. Also because the process of verbal/visual communication in print has a long and distinguished history. Technology didn’t just make it happen.
Sorcerer exchanging the Gospels for a book of black magic. Never underestimate the power of the printed word.
Printing terms in six languages
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