On Thu, Nov 14, 2024 at 19:35 (+0000), Keith McKay wrote: > In last night's ConTeXt meeting there was a discussion on the use of > vertical or slanted double primes for inches. The general consensus was that > slanted should be used.
> I had a look in my copy of The Elements of Typographic Style version 3.0 by > Richard Bringhurst and he says (page 307]: > "Double Prime. An abbreviation for inches (1" =2.54 cm) and for seconds of > arc (360" = 1 degree). Not to be confused with quotation marks, the double > acute, nor with dumb quotes. Prime and double prime are rarely found on text > fonts. See also prime. [U+2033]" > Similarly for prime he says (page 316): > "Prime. An abbreviation for feet (1' = 12") and for minutes of arc (60' = 1 > degree). Singe and double primes should not be confused with apostrophes, > dumb quotes or genuine quotation marks, though in some faces (frakturs > especially) these glyphs may all have a similar shape and a pleasant slope. > See also apostrophes, double prime, dumb quotes and quotation marks. > [U+2032]" > Hope this clarifies things. At the meeting I said I was going to look around and get back. Mea culpa for letting Keith beat me to it. I guess he deserves another glass of his Macallan 30 year old single malt scotch. Aside from references to The Elements of Typographic Style (as quoted by Keith above), I found various sites which claim that the inch symbol is prime marks: -> https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/data-center-software/how-to-type-the-inch-symbol- -> https://www.itprotoday.com/microsoft-windows/how-to-type-the-inch-symbol- (essentially the same article as above) -> https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Punctuation/faq0125.html -> https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/46055/typesetting-with-inch-symbols-and-sizes-in-inches (see keme1's claim about 1/2 way down) -> https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/typing-symbol-for-quot-inches-quot/m-p/1718417 See "Correct answer by FivePicaPica" -> https://webdesignledger.com/common-typography-mistakes-apostrophes-versus-quotation-marks/ This one says to use straight, not curly quotes, but is silent on the issue of whether the quote is slanted (thus a prime): -> https://www.nobledesktop.com/typography-rules These ones calls them prime, but just say they are straight: -> https://practicaltypography.com/foot-and-inch-marks.html -> https://typographyforlawyers.com/foot-and-inch-marks.html Amusingly, this seems to be a plagiarism of the one above. Or maybe vice versa. This one says it shows the correct glyphs, but the glyphs shown are straight up and down: -> https://www.myfonts.com/pages/fontscom-learning-fontology-level-3-signs-and-symbols-correct-marks?srsltid=AfmBOoqI3Wrm6pwLcCzVJGJIpG3mQlnCpE883HqabgwqZh84YTFePlyp I don't recognize any of those (with the possible exception of the Chicago manual of style) as definitive opinions. But I will say that each and every time I discussed the issue with Hermann Zaph, he said that inch and foot marks are straight lines with a slant. I found nothing at all about what to do when setting italic text. It makes sense to me to slant them a bit more, but that is just a gut feeling. I think that is likely everything I will have to say on this topic. No doubt that makes people happy. :-) Jim ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / https://mailman.ntg.nl/mailman3/lists/ntg-context.ntg.nl webpage : https://www.pragma-ade.nl / https://context.aanhet.net (mirror) archive : https://github.com/contextgarden/context wiki : https://wiki.contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________
