Commonly Confused Characters

With the advent of desktop publishing in the 1980's, typesetting suddenly changed from a spectator sport to participatory. Along with this, a lot of the subtleties got lost for many. A lot of people didn't know they were missing these details, and a lot of programs didn't let you do anything about it even if you did.

With the creation of Unicode, this has changed for many applications. Unicode includes many characters which are traditionally combined in computer-generated works. This is a list of some of those, including their proper usage.

Some similar topics are discussed in 10 Typographical Blunders and in The Trouble With EM 'n EN at A List Apart.

Thanks to Toby Thain for sending me the Mac keystrokes that go with each character.

Coders of various stripes should read the following:

Contents

Single Quote-like Characters

ASCII Apostrophe

This is the character that you type on a standard (US layout) keyboard with the key that's beside the semicolon. It shouldn't really ever be used in proper typography, but is often used because it's easy to type and well supported. It is superseded by one of the below, depending on meaning.

Backtick

This is the character that's typically on a US layout keyboard below the tilde (~). It shouldn't be used in place of the opening single quote, or for any other discernible typographic purpose.

Opening Single Quote

This is the symbol that should be used to start a quotation that's delimited with single quotes. For example, ‘Over here!’

Closing Single Quote

This is the symbol that should be used to end a quotation that's delimited with single quotes. For example, ‘Over here!’ This is also the preferred character to use as an apostrophe, as in I’m coming, or He’s with me.

Prime

Used in mathematics, as in xx′ + yy′. It's also used as the symbol for feet, as in I am 6′ tall.

  • Unicode character: 2032 hex = 8242 dec
  • Unicode character name: PRIME
  • Unicode Reference glyph: Unicode 2032
  • Your browser's representation (in the default serif and sans-serif fonts): ′ ′
  • XML/HTML numeric entity: ′ or ′
  • TeX/LaTeX: Type an apostrophe in math mode.
  • Typing: in Ubuntu/Gnome, Ctrl-Shift-u 2 0 3 2 Enter; in Windows, hold Alt and type + 2 0 3 2; on a Mac, hold Option and type 2 0 3 2
  • Mac keystroke: Option-4 in Symbol font
  • The Prime on MyFonts.com.
  • The Prime on zvon.org
  • The Prime on eki.ee
  • Display of Prime in various fonts
Acute Accent

This character is provided so it can be placed over others, as an accent. It should take up zero horizontal space, because it's designed to overlap another character.

Grave Accent

This character is provided so it can be placed over others, as an accent. It should take up zero horizontal space, because it's designed to overlap another character.

  • Unicode character: 0300 hex = 768 dec
  • Unicode character name: COMBINING GRAVE ACCENT
  • Unicode Reference glyph: Unicode 0300
  • Your browser's representation (in the default serif and sans-serif fonts): ̀ ̀
  • XML/HTML numeric entity: ̀ or ̀
  • TeX/LaTeX: Use the \` (backslash-backtick) macro before the character you want to accent.
  • Typing: in Ubuntu/Gnome, Ctrl-Shift-u 0 3 0 0 Enter; in Windows, hold Alt and type + 0 3 0 0; on a Mac, hold Option and type 0 3 0 0
  • Mac keystroke: Option-` (backtick) then accented character
  • The Grave Accent on MyFonts.com.
  • The Grave Accent on zvon.org
  • The Grave Accent on eki.ee
  • Display of Grave Accent in various fonts

Double Quote-like Characters

ASCII Double Quote

This is the character that you type on a standard (US layout) keyboard with the key that's beside the semicolon. It shouldn't really ever be used in proper typography, but is often used because it's easy to type and well supported. It is superseded by one of the below, depending on meaning.

Opening Double Quote

This is the symbol that should be used to start a quotation that's delimited with double quotes. For example, “Over here!”

Closing Double Quote

This is the symbol that should be used to end a quotation that's delimited with double quotes. For example, “Over here!”

Double Prime

A doubled version of the prime symbol. Used in mathematics like xx′x″ + yy′y″. It is also used to indicate inches, The table is 5′ 6″ long. Unicode also defines a triple prime symbol at hex 2034.

Ditto Mark

Used to indicate that the text or other material is identical to that above it.

Dashes

ASCII Hyphen

The hyphen produced by the key on your keyboard. It can be used in place of the hyphen or minus sign (as described below), but the more specific characters are preferred.

Hyphen

Used in hyphenating a word, as in pre‐fabricated or e‐mail. This is also the symbol that should be used when breaking a word across a line.

En-Dash

The en-dash is used to indicate a range, like I'll need 100–150 units or John Doe, 1914–2001.

  • Unicode character: 2013 hex = 8211 dec
  • Unicode character name: EN DASH
  • Unicode Reference glyph: Unicode 2013
  • Your browser's representation (in the default serif and sans-serif fonts): – –
  • XML/HTML numeric entity: – or –
  • HTML named entity: –
  • TeX/LaTeX: Type two hyphens, --.
  • Typing: in Ubuntu/Gnome, Ctrl-Shift-u 2 0 1 3 Enter; in Windows, hold Alt and type + 2 0 1 3; on a Mac, hold Option and type 2 0 1 3
  • Mac keystroke: Option-hyphen
  • The En-Dash on MyFonts.com.
  • The En-Dash on zvon.org
  • The En-Dash on eki.ee
  • Display of En-Dash in various fonts
Em-Dash

This is used to break up a sentence. Two dashes, --, are often used in its place when typing, but this is the proper way to do it. [In fact, if your browser doesn't have a real em-dash character, you might see the double-hyphen instead.] For example, He said he had it under control—I could see that wasn't true.

  • Unicode character: 2014 hex = 8212 dec
  • Unicode character name: EM DASH
  • Unicode Reference glyph: Unicode 2014
  • Your browser's representation (in the default serif and sans-serif fonts): — —
  • XML/HTML numeric entity: — or —
  • HTML named entity: —
  • TeX/LaTeX: Type three hyphens, ---.
  • Typing: in Ubuntu/Gnome, Ctrl-Shift-u 2 0 1 4 Enter; in Windows, hold Alt and type + 2 0 1 4; on a Mac, hold Option and type 2 0 1 4
  • Mac keystroke: Shift-Option-hyphen
  • The Em-Dash on MyFonts.com.
  • The Em-Dash on zvon.org
  • The Em-Dash on eki.ee
  • Display of Em-Dash in various fonts
Minus Sign

Used to indicate subtraction, as in 4 − 1 = 3 or z = x − y.

Soft Hyphen

This isn't quite a "character" in the usual sense. The soft hyphen is used to indicate a place that a word can be broken if it's near the end of a line. Usually, this character shouldn't appear (if you see nothing in the example below, that's right). It displays as a hyphen if the line is broken at that point.

Non-breaking Hyphen

The appearance of this character is exactly the same as the regular hyphen. The difference is that the line should not be broken at this point.

Hyphen Bullet

This character is intended to be used as the bullet in a bulleted list.

Spaces

The rules for spacing are a lot looser than for the other characters above. There's a lot of style associated with the space between various elements. So, I'll present the important spacing characters and give the best description I can of what they're commonly used for.

Space

This is the regular space that should appear between words. It's what you get when you press the space-bar on your keyboard.

  • Unicode character: 0020 hex = 32 dec
  • Unicode character name: SPACE
  • Unicode Reference glyph: Unicode 0020
  • Your browser's representation (in the default serif and sans-serif fonts):    
  • XML/HTML numeric entity:   or  
  • TeX/LaTeX: This can usually be produced by just typing a space. TeX guesses about sentence endings and puts a longer space there. You can override this or produce multiple spaces with the \  (backslash-space) macro.
  • Typing: space bar
  • The Space on MyFonts.com.
  • The Space on zvon.org
  • The Space on eki.ee
  • Display of Space in various fonts
Non-breaking Space

This is used is indicate a space where the line should not be broken. For example, all of the spaces in Mr. John Doe should be non-breaking since it's incorrect to split a line in the middle of someone's name.

Em-Space

A space with the same width as the height of the font, approximately the width of a capital letter 'M'.

En-Space

Half an em-space. This is about the amount of space that's commonly put between sentences by typesetters, although it's typically a little less in modern texts.

  • Unicode character: 2002 hex = 8194 dec
  • Unicode character name: EN SPACE
  • Unicode Reference glyph: Unicode 2002
  • Your browser's representation (in the default serif and sans-serif fonts):    
  • XML/HTML numeric entity:   or  
  • HTML named entity:  
  • TeX/LaTeX: Use \hspace{.5em}. The \@ macro is used to indicate a between-sentences space.
  • Typing: in Ubuntu/Gnome, Ctrl-Shift-u 2 0 0 2 Enter; in Windows, hold Alt and type + 2 0 0 2; on a Mac, hold Option and type 2 0 0 2
  • Mac keystroke: Option-space in most applications
  • The En-Space on MyFonts.com.
  • The En-Space on zvon.org
  • The En-Space on eki.ee
  • Display of En-Space in various fonts

Others

Ellipsis

The ellipsis is used to indicate an omission. For example, 1, 2, …, 10. The dots in an ellipsis should be spaced a little further apart than three periods would typically be, so they have been assigned this character.

  • Unicode character: 2026 hex = 8230 dec
  • Unicode character name: HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS
  • Unicode Reference glyph: Unicode 2026
  • Your browser's representation (in the default serif and sans-serif fonts): … …
  • XML/HTML numeric entity: … or …
  • HTML named entity: …
  • TeX/LaTeX: Use the \ldots macro. There are several others that can be used in math mode to produce a higher ellipsis, vertical ellipsis, etc.
  • Typing: in Ubuntu/Gnome, Ctrl-Shift-u 2 0 2 6 Enter; in Windows, hold Alt and type + 2 0 2 6; on a Mac, hold Option and type 2 0 2 6
  • Mac keystroke: Option-; (semicolon)
  • The Ellipsis on MyFonts.com.
  • The Ellipsis on zvon.org
  • The Ellipsis on eki.ee
  • Display of Ellipsis in various fonts

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Copyright © , last modified 2011-01-16.