GoKawiilQuotation marks, braсkets, and various kinds of spaces are a multi-faceted and controversial subject. But apart from those, there are glyphs much more simple in terms of design and use — because of their ubiquity, they mostly fly under the radar. In this article, we continue to talk about basic punctuation characters.
Period
In European and many other languages the period marks the end of a sentence. The symbol is also used for marking initials and abbreviations, and in some regions — as a decimal separator, or a separator of hours and minutes when registering time. Typically, the period is not used in the last sentence of a headline.
Design, kerning, spacing
Depending on the typeface’s design, the period can be rounded, rectangular, rhomboid, etc. The symbol correlates to the dot above i, but is normally larger.
The period is a frequent symbol, therefore its shape affects the overall intonation of a typeface. The most principled designers can discard an (otherwise high-quality) typeface, if they are not satisfied with its periods.
Periods of different shapes and sizes in static sans serif fonts
In some legacy typefaces, the period has asymmetrical sidebearings — in this case, the space after the period would be excessive, you might need to track it. Today, it is customary practice design period with equal sidebearings — because the cases of its use are not limited to traditions.
In monospaced fonts, the period glyph has the same width as all the others — that means very wide sidebearings, which result in the widest space at the end of a sentence. Whether it needs to be compensated or not — that depends on your task.
Period + space in monospaced fonts
... continue reading