5 simple typography rules that will make your letter, article and any other text more impressive
On the one hand, content is more important than form, on the other hand, the careless design seems to hint that the text was thrown in hastily. To prevent appearance from devaluing the most convincing arguments, do not neglect the basic rules of typography. In the article we talk about them so that it is enough to see them once and remember them for the rest of your life.
But first, a native, laconic and – very soon we'll get down to business – unobtrusive recommendation: similar rules are published on the channel Bad/good. This is a visual observation simulator for everyone who at least sometimes works with text.
The text has more than a few sentences – divide it into paragraphs
Continuous text looks like an unconquerable mountain: to start reading, you need to be in a good mood. Because of this, a message or article may be shelved and forgotten. Paragraphs break up the insurmountable mountain into convenient portions, from which the reader can easily understand where one thought ends and a new one begins.
Ideally, you should divide the text into paragraphs according to the principle “one paragraph – one question.” For example, this block answers at least three questions:
If we write out the questions and answer them, it will immediately become clear where we need to pause and break out the paragraph:
There is an easier way to check the appropriateness of a new paragraph: count the number of sentences. Only in rare cases can one semantic unit not fit into 3–5 sentences. If your text block has more than a few sentences, it's probably paragraph time.
The text has more than a few paragraphs – add subheadings
It's great when the text is divided into paragraphs, but if there are a lot of paragraphs, the volume can still be off-putting. Typically, the reader will first skim the top of the article or message and evaluate whether it is worth attention. For such “navigation” subheadings are needed.
The minimum program is to group paragraphs into semantic sections and title them at least in free form. Correct design of subheadings is the next level of detail, not so fundamental. But since we want to make everything beautiful, it’s worth checking for compliance with two rules:
— Subheadings are consistent. For example, they are formulated in the form of a question or contain a general part of speech:
– Does not contain “noise” such as duplicate words and particles. Here is an example when prepositions are clearly redundant because they do not add information:
A little life hack: it’s convenient to write out all the subheadings without the main text and look at them like a bulleted list – repetitions, inconsistencies and other rough edges immediately catch your eye.
There are more than a few items in the list – we format it as a list
Usually listings are hidden inside large paragraphs. If you arrange them in the form of a numbered or bulleted list, this will distinguish them favorably and generally make the text more structured.
It’s important to know two things about list design:
— Each type has its own clear purpose. Numbered should only be used if the sequence of items is important or you need to emphasize their priority. In all other cases, a bulleted list will be appropriate. For example:
— Either a period or a semicolon is placed at the end of the list items. If paragraphs consist of long lines or entire sentences, it is better to put a period at the end of each paragraph, and start a new one with a capital letter. Otherwise (as in the screenshot above), each paragraph should begin with a small letter, and end with a semicolon – except for the last one: a period is placed after it.
We use “paws” only inside “Christmas trees”
Let's move on to more subtle rules of typography. Not every reader will pay attention to your quotes, but those who do will be delighted by the attention to detail. Moreover, the rule is as straightforward as possible: in Russian-language texts, quotation marks in the form of Christmas trees are almost always used – “”.
There is another type of quotation marks, and for some reason it is more widespread: the so-called paws – “”. Probably, their popularity is due to the fact that many keyboards use tabs by default. But the only place where they would be appropriate is inside “herringbones” – that is, if you need quotes inside quotes. For example:
On their website it was written: “The company “Bonanza does a little bit of everything.”
We put a dash if there are spaces around, when there are none – a hyphen
Another common mistake is related to horizontal lines.
There are three types of lines that differ only in length – no wonder they are confused. Let's look at each type, simplifying the rules a little:
A hyphen is the shortest stroke (-), used when you need to connect particles, prefixes or complex words. This is to say, as in the textbook, but in fact it is enough to check whether there are spaces around the sign: if not, feel free to put a hyphen.
The minus sign is the middle bar (–), which is used in numeric ranges.
The dash is the longest stroke (—), used in all other cases. For example, between the subject and the predicate or in the place of a missing part of a sentence. A simple check: involves an intonation pause and always with spaces around.
Let’s summarize with a laconic cheat sheet with examples:
Usually, each type of dash has its own key combination for input. But it’s easier to type in the name of the sign + the word “copy” into the search and, in fact, copy. For example: dash copy.
Finally, let's review the rules:
A text of five or more sentences should be divided into paragraphs according to the principle “one paragraph – one thought.”
If you end up with more than a few paragraphs, you should add subheadings and formulate them uniformly.
It is better to format lists of several items in the form of lists: numbered, if the sequence is important, or bulleted.
“Paws” can only be used correctly inside “Christmas trees”.
A dash differs from a hyphen in its length and the presence of spaces between the character and the words.
If you have your own techniques for correct design, share them in the comments. Well, subscribe to the channel Bad/goodthere is a lot of that.
