Typography Rules
One of the bibles for a translator – French Lexicon of typographic rules used by National Printing
Tuesday, November 14, 2023
Recently, I was troubled by a question a final –British– client asking if the space I used before the “:” mark was intentional. Another way of saying that they thought it could be a typo. So I made my point explaining them that it was not an error, but only different typographic rules between French and English...
In fact, like journalists, writers and anybody working in the communication sector, translators follow the typographic rules applied in their mother tongue. They are part of our job and we have to know them and apply them carefully. One obvious requirement for me – and an obvious demand for my clients, I thought.
But the truth is, punctuation rules are different from one language to another. Thus, a British writer would use no space before marks like “: ; ? !”. And he or she would not insert any space between quotes “” neither – which are by the way double quotes whereas we would be using angle brackets « » in France.
And these typographic rules are also specific to each country. Which means that even if we also speak French in Belgium, in Switzerland or in Canada, the typographic rules applied in each of these countries are not the same.
Beyond the words, a translator also needs to adapt the typography to the people who will be reading the text.
I do translate content for our Swiss friends at regular intervals. In this case, I delete the space before double punctuation marks and in between the quotes. For instance, let’s take a sentence written in French for an audience living in France and then in Switzerland:
- For a French target audience living in France, I would write: Noël arrive : louez une voiture avec l’offre « Green Car » !
- For a French target audience living in Switzerland, I would write: Noël arrive: louez une voiture avec l’offre «Green Car»!
As you can see, spaces before all punctuation marks have disappeared!
Some clients also have their very own typographic rules. In that case, translators are asked to follow their specific “style guide”.
In conclusion, here is a short summary of the general typographic rules used in France:
- We insert an unbreakable space before the following punctuation marks: ; ? ! (while there is no space in English)
- We insert an unbreakable space before units (i.e. 15 cm, 20 %, 5 °C, while English writing is 15cm, 20%, 5°C)
- We use angle bracket quotes « » (with unbreakable spaces)
- We use accentuated upper case (i.e. ÉTONNÉ, CHAMPÊTRE)
- We separate decimals with a comma in numbers (i.e. 10,5 while English writing is 10.5)
For more information on typographic rules applicable in France, read the book here: Lexique des règles typographiques en usage à l’imprimerie nationale