French Typography: The Complete Guide

Accents carry full spelling value on capitals. They improve recognition and can prevent ambiguity.

The cedilla and diaeresis belong to the letter and remain present in all-capital text.

In words that contain them, œ and æ are letters, not decorative substitutions. Common examples include cœur, œuvre, and sœur.

An é can be one character or an e followed by a combining accent. They can look identical, but the latter may disrupt search, sorting, and counting. Use the precomposed character when it exists.

Commas and periods follow the preceding word with no space. A normal space follows them.

In polished French from France, a nonbreaking space precedes a colon. A narrow nonbreaking space precedes a semicolon, exclamation mark, and question mark.

Do not add a space after an opening mark or before a closing mark. A nonbreaking space can still join a label to its number.

A slash is usually closed up between short terms. In a complex sentence, writing the relationship out is clearer.

Separate operators and comparison signs from values when they express a relationship. Use the true minus sign.

An ellipsis is one character. Do not combine it with a final period or with etc.

A primary quotation in French uses « and », with nonbreaking spaces inside.

Use curly English double quotation marks for a quotation inside French guillemets.

Punctuation that belongs to the quoted words stays inside. Sentence punctuation stays outside when it does not belong to the quotation.

In sustained literary dialogue, each new speaker can begin with an em dash. Repeating quotation marks on every line is unnecessary.

A long quotation works best as an indented block, without added quotation marks when the layout already identifies it. Keep the author and source visible.

The curly apostrophe ’ is standard in published French. Keep the straight apostrophe for code, identifiers, and systems that require it.

The hyphen joins compounds, certain verb forms, and some spelled-out numbers.

The nonbreaking hyphen ‑ prevents a line break. Use it for a name or short reference that must stay together, after checking compatibility.

The mathematical minus − is longer than a hyphen and aligns with other operators.

An en dash joins the ends of a range. An em dash marks a French aside or introduces dialogue.

A comma is the normal French decimal separator. Keep the period for code and technical formats that require it.

A nonbreaking space separates groups of three digits. Do not apply grouping to years, page numbers, codes, or identifiers.

A nonbreaking space joins the value to the symbol. Unit symbols take neither a period nor a plural ending.

In common French usage, a nonbreaking space separates the number from the symbol.

In running French text, use a lowercase h surrounded by nonbreaking spaces. Colon formats suit interfaces and technical data.

French weekdays and months are lowercase. Standard ordinal abbreviations are 1^er, 1^re, and 2^e.

Weekdays, months, and language names are lowercase. Demonyms are capitalized as nouns but not as adjectives.

The capital normally falls on the first noun that individualizes an institution. Later words stay lowercase unless they are proper names.

French headings do not capitalize every major word. Capitalize the first word and proper names.

Books, films, newspapers, and other standalone works are generally italicized. Short works within a larger whole may take quotation marks.

Italics can identify a work, defined term, unassimilated foreign word, or brief emphasis. They lose meaning when used everywhere.

An abbreviation cut before the end of a word normally takes a period. A contraction that keeps the final letter usually does not.

Common French abbreviations have stable spellings. Avoid long endings based on pronunciation.

Modern initialisms are usually set in capitals without periods or spaces. A lexicalized acronym may use an initial capital only.

Readers may not know an organization’s internal abbreviations. Expand them once unless they are obvious to the target audience.

A fragment list may begin lowercase and omit final periods. A list of full sentences takes capitals and periods. Do not mix the systems.

The introductory sentence must lead grammatically into its items. A colon introduces a list that completes the sentence.

A caption identifies what the reader sees without forcing a return to the body. Use a period when the caption is a full sentence.

In French composition, a note call is usually closed up to the relevant text and placed before final punctuation.

A reference should identify the author or organization, title, date or edition, and useful publisher or address.

Decide how your publication handles numbers, dates, initialisms, headings, quotations, captions, and references before release.

Use descriptive link text instead of a long address in a sentence. If the URL must be visible, keep final punctuation outside the link. An email address stays intact, with no spaces: prenom.nom@example.org.

Browsers can wrap long addresses visually. Added spaces or manual line breaks can make the URL unusable.

Many platforms accept accented hashtags. Capitalizing each word improves readability in a compound hashtag.

An emoji should not replace essential information or serve as the only button label. Do not separate the code points that form an emoji sequence.

Some editors and social platforms replace nonbreaking spaces. Publish a test excerpt and inspect line wrapping in the final content.

Runs of spaces, tabs, and forced line breaks do not replace a grid, table, or style sheet.