What I found interesting from the reading was the importance of spacing and how that affects readability and the major differences between justified and unjustified text. Readability is really important for continuous text and just slight differences can really affect how you read things, it may be having a spacing between words that are too large or too small, having lines that are too long or short
What is the optimal line length?
Around 50-60 characters is optimal line length or 60-70 characters per line length. If the type is set to 10pt, there should 2pt spacing to create this sort of line length.
How does line length affect readability?
If the line length is too short or too long it makes reading tiring, therefore detracting from the readability.
What should the word spacing be?
They should be well-balanced and even, 2.5pt between words for a 10pt type.
What is text justification?
Justified text is a composition of typesetting where all the lines have equal length, this means that each line is spaced differently so it is able to have equal length. Any space at the end of the line that would usually be leftover is then distributed between the words on that line, or a word might be squeezed on, making words spacing different on each line. Unjustified texts different from justified text as the word spaces are kept the same, this creates uneven lines on the right, the rag.
What is ragging ("hard rag" & "soft rag")?
Ragging is only present in the unjustified text, as the line varies however, justified text does not. A hard rag when the unjustified setting has no word breaks, meaning it has a wide hyphenation zone making the text look uneven and unpolished. A soft rag has word breaks meaning the shortest line and the longest lines are a reasonable distance from each other, giving it a small hyphenation zone.
What is the difference between en-dash, em-dash and hyphen?
An em-dash stretches over the notional body of type, the en-dash is half the body width, then the hyphen is just a bit smaller than the en-dash. That is the difference between them visually but they are also used for different purposes, the em-dash is used to show an interruption in dialogue or set apart phrases. An en-dash indicates a span of time or distance, a hyphen is then used at the end of a line to separate broken words, or they link two words together e.g. blue-eyed.
When would you use double quotations and when would you use single quotations?
English and American English tend to use double quotation marks for quotations, single quotation marks are then used for a quotation within a quotation. To make the appearance of quotations more attractive in continuous text, it would be best to use single quotations for the quotation that occurs more (this tend to be the first quotation) then for the lesser-used quotation to use the double quotations, for the quotation within the quotation.
When would you use double quotations and when would you use single quotations?
English and American English tend to use double quotation marks for quotations, single quotation marks are then used for a quotation within a quotation. To make the appearance of quotations more attractive in continuous text, it would be best to use single quotations for the quotation that occurs more (this tend to be the first quotation) then for the lesser-used quotation to use the double quotations, for the quotation within the quotation.
What are guillemets or angle quotes?
Guillemets or angle quotes are double chevrons are used in place of quotation marks in some European languages their posts face inwards, except in Germany when the points face outwards.
When could you use small caps?
You could use small caps when abbreviations in that are in capitals are too obtrusive in continuous text, which could interfere with the flow of the line. If that looks strange you could set the capitals to half the size of the type or maybe a size smaller.
What is the difference between lining and non-lining figures?
A lining figure usually refers to numerals, they are usually the same height as capitals or sometimes a little less, whereas non-lining figures having varying width and they don't always sit upon the line.
What is leading?
Leading is the line spacing (interlinear space), this is the spacing between one line and another. The longer the line the more line spacing it needs.
What are rivers?
This is the space that vertically runs through lines when the word spaces line up.
How man successive word breaks under each-other are allowed?
There shouldn't be more than 3-word breaks in succession.
What is an indent?
This is used in place of paragraphs, to clearly indicate when the paragraph begins.