102
votes
Accepted
Is there a name for text that reads the same upside-down?
That is called an ambigram. It is a typographical design that can be read in more than one direction.
ambigram noun
A typographical design consisting of text modified in such a way that it can ...
- 29.1k
68
votes
Accepted
Word for how the white space between words can form patterns
There’s a specific term for this, and even an entire Wikipedia article:
In typography, rivers (or rivers of white) are gaps in typesetting which appear to run through a paragraph of text due to a ...
- 65.3k
36
votes
Accepted
Usage of diacritics in loanwords
The consensus is... there is no consensus. In fact, some of the style guides I checked didn't even mention it. In that case you can just use the spelling recommended by a dictionary. That's what The ...
- 65.3k
28
votes
Moving the lower case ‘c’ up flush with the ‘M’ in the last name MᶜNeil?
I believe this is because the name element (now) usually expressed "Mc" is an abbreviation for "Mac"; at one time, superscript (often with an underline or under dots) was a common ...
- 22.7k
20
votes
Moving the lower case ‘c’ up flush with the ‘M’ in the last name MᶜNeil?
Pronunciation.
The 'upper-C' is a type of diacritical mark. In the 'good old days' this used to have a line under the superscript C called macron. All these tend to alter the actual pronunciation of ...
- 2,875
17
votes
Why does English use the French "sans" for sans serif?
The short answer is that we don't know for sure. Sans serif is a compound formed in English between the long-used English preposition from French sans and serif, most likely invented by printers ...
- 39.4k
15
votes
Why does English omit diacritics on foreign names?
I, an ignorant, lazy, hubristic, and (most-importantly) impatient American, need to add this preface, so I will have enough letters for this to be counted as an answer.
One word:
Keyboard
Please, ...
- 701
15
votes
Usage of diacritics in loanwords
I do not think that garçon/garcon is an ideal example, as it is seldom used as an English word (i.e. it is generally only used only to refer to a French individual). A better loan-word with a cedilla ...
- 12.4k
13
votes
Accepted
Name for making the first few words in a chapter small caps?
The name that I'm familiar with (in U.S. publishing) for this style element is lead-in small caps. You can read a discussion of various lead-ins (including lead-in small caps) in an article titled "...
- 161k
12
votes
Appropriate dash to use when attributing a quotation?
Your example seems to refer to an epigraph, which is a short passage normally used at the start of a book or chapter. There is no "single" answer. It depends entirely on the style guide or in-house ...
- 37.9k
11
votes
Word for how the white space between words can form patterns
Dan Bron's comment is exactly the features you're describing. You can consider this a typography example of negative space:
Negative space, in art, is the space around and between the subject(s)
of ...
- 2,651
10
votes
Accepted
How do I show that a singular word is louder than any other in a sentence when writing it?
From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_(linguistics)#Prosodic_stress
I didn't take the test yesterday. (Somebody else did.)
I didn't take the test yesterday. (I did not take it.)
I didn't take ...
- 2,967
9
votes
Accepted
Connection between the thou/you thee/ye forms of you and the confusion between the thorn (þ) and the letter 'y'?
I'm asking if that quirk of orthography was possibly aided due to an alternate pronunciation of 'y' that reinforced it.
No, there was no such alternate pronunciation.
At the time that thee was still ...
- 53.2k
9
votes
Usage of diacritics in loanwords
There's also the curious case of foreign words that normally wouldn't get diacriticals, but sometimes do in order to distinguish them from their English look-alikes. For example, the Japanese word ...
- 346
9
votes
Is there a word for when a logo uses an image for one of the letters?
It's a visual pun.
Visual pun is quite a broad graphic design term. Somewhat inevitably, Buzzfeed has a list of visual puns which is as good a way of understanding the term as anything else.
What's ...
- 3,407
9
votes
Accepted
Why does "s" have different forms?
The "s" at the start of "se" and the one at the start of "steorra" are two variant handwritten forms of the same letter. I don't think the use of one vs. the other is ...
- 80.4k
8
votes
Accepted
Curious New Yorker typography
This is a matter of the typographic style of the The New Yorker, a publication known for it idiosyncratic, slow-to-change, and close punctuation style. The two dots are called a diaeresis, which ...
- 44.6k
8
votes
Accepted
Where does the [sic] go in this sentence?
Place [sic] after the second repetition error.
It would read:
... visitors need to need to [sic] apply for a temporary...
Editorial (your) additions are placed in square brackets.
- 2,469
8
votes
Accepted
Is there an "official" name for a heading prefix, or qualifier?
According to Dictionary of Layout & Typography Terms, the element containing the text "Challenge #1" in your example is variously known as a kicker, an overline, or an eyebrow:
KICKER Short, (...
- 161k
8
votes
Should spaces be used between "<" or ">" and numbers or letters?
The AMA Manual of Style says:
Thin spaces should be used before and after the following mathematical symbols: ±, =, <, >, ≤, ≥, +, −, ÷, ×, ·, ≈, ∼, ∩, ∫, Π, Σ, and |.
a ± b a = b a + b a − b a ...
- 538
8
votes
When did punctuation marks lose their associated spaces?
Approach to the Question
The question addresses historical changes in typesetting* conventions, particularly in Britain. The primary concern is spaces associated with the following punctuation marks: ?...
- 12.4k
7
votes
Is the usage of "the a priori" correct?
You don't have a usage problem; you have a typesetting problem, which is (like punctuation) a matter of style. Thus you (and your editor) should be guided by your manual of style. I use the Chicago ...
- 44.6k
7
votes
Why does English omit diacritics on foreign names?
The answer is obvious: Modern Standard English does not have diacritics. Why would you expect English copy to include non-English characters? If someone wants to write my English name in a non-English ...
- 87
7
votes
Accepted
A word for decorations added to letters
The word you are looking for is swash, which is a term of art in typesetting. The OED’s 1989 definition for this is:
Printing Applied to old-style capital letters having flourished strokes designed ...
- 134k
7
votes
In Britain, which is more common — the em dash or the en dash?
This is a matter of style, so it's not possible to give a definitive answer on what the correct use is. Different style guides, and different people, will use dashes in different ways.
Having said ...
- 37.9k
6
votes
During what period of history did English use “ß”, the “sharp s” ligature?
I'm a bit late to this, but the ß was used on the letterhead of the Clarendon Press [Preß] at Oxford in 1963. I can't say I've ever seen another example in 20th-century English.
Here's a picture:
- 61
6
votes
Accepted
Is reading uppercase sentences hard?
Yes, the paper Reading Text from Computer Screens cites studies that found that uppercase sentences are read more slowly and with lower comprehension than sentences with normal casing (links added):
...
- 65.3k
6
votes
What is the symbol connecting the letters "c" and "t" called, and when did it go out of style?
As Xanne notes in a comment beneath the posted question, the generic name for a joined two-letter typed character such as ct in the image above is ligature. Writing in response to essentially the same ...
- 161k
5
votes
Why does English omit diacritics on foreign names?
In a note appended to the question, the OP says 'I am only talking about names using the Latin alphabet, I am not talking about transliterated names'. This implies that the OP regards it as ...
- 8,187
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