Tips on French typography
The special features and differences between French and German typography
French and German typography are different. When it comes to Word documents in which the non-printing characters view is on, our clients often ask:
"Why are there "weird" symbols in French instead of blank spaces?"
Interlingua has an explanation about French typography.
Basically, in French there are two types of blank spaces:
- normal blank spaces, that is, between words, like in English
- and non-breaking blank spaces
When are non-breaking blank spaces used?
- before all double punctuation marks (; : ! ? )
- between a number and a unit (for example, 2 %)
- as thousands separator (1 000 or 8 500 360), except for years (1789)
Why are there non-breaking blank spaces?
For instance, a non-breaking blank space can avoid that a number and a unit (1 %) are separated at the end of a line, that is, that a number appears at the end of a line and the unit symbol moves to the next one. Besides, they prevent long numbers (10 000 000) from being separated by a line break so they move the whole number into the next line.
What do non-breaking blank spaces look like?
A non-breaking blank space is a bit smaller than a normal one. Non-breaking blank spaces can be set by typing CTRL+SHIFT+SPACE.
