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Typographic approximation
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<h2 id="typewriter-and-line-printer-approximations">Typewriter and line printer approximations</h2> <p class="note">See also: <a href="/facts/Typewriter/CHE43FWP">Typewriter § Typewriter conventions</a></p> <h3>Merger of characters</h3> <p>On <a href="/facts/Typewriter/CHE43FWP">typewriter</a>, several characters were merged due to limited size of glyph repertoire. Several modern computing <a href="/facts/Character_(computing)/X2zKLFFB">characters</a> appeared by merger of different symbols, such as the "typewriter" <a href="/facts/Apostrophe/vnPUFIYz">apostrophe</a>, ', which can denote an apostrophe proper, ’, a single <a href="/facts/Quotation_mark/hIdA4WEo">quotation mark</a>, or the <a href="/facts/Prime_(symbol)/3p9EvU5X">prime symbol</a>. </p> <h3>Non-spacing modifiers</h3> <p>Some typewriters have <a href="/facts/Dead_key/5jlo4RW5"><i>non-spacing</i> keys</a> for use as <a href="/facts/Diacritic/Rw6lMzQW">diacritical</a> marks. After the typist pushes, say, acute accent ◌́ the caret does not move. This allows the typist to <a href="/facts/Overstrike/Hrp8YWCC">overstrike</a> this mark by a <a href="/facts/Spacing_character/aCFyKyDT">spacing</a> letter, say, e and obtain é, an accented letter. Due to geometrical restrictions of a <a href="/facts/Monospaced_font/or1TCAoh">monospaced font</a>, the result could not always be perfect. For example, overstriking was unlikely to be a feasible method to produce <a href="/facts/Uppercase/KQcwaUUD">uppercase</a> accented letters, such as É. </p><p>Overstrike was used on <a href="/facts/Line_printer/QyWwtNBJ">line printers</a> for the same function. This contributed to standardization of such characters as U+0060 ` <a href="/facts/Grave_accent/pVo48UeD">GRAVE ACCENT</a>. </p><p>Overstrike of the same letter was used to simulate <a href="/facts/Boldface/RXGfXwcG">boldface</a> letters on line printers. </p> <h2 id="ascii-approximations">ASCII approximations</h2> <table><tbody><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td>An ASCII approximation (above) may be ugly, but giving some representation of several symbols. Replacements of non-ASCII characters (others than default "*") are highlighted in yellow.</td></tr><tr><td><table><tbody><tr><th colspan="2">Original text:</th></tr><tr><td colspan="2"> ASCII*Decima</td></tr><tr><td>ASC Dec Hex Binary ╔═╤════════════════ ║ │ 0 00 00000000 ║☺│ 1 01 00000001 ║☻│ 2 02 00000010 ║♥│ 3 03 00000011 ║♦│ 4 04 00000100 ║♣│ 5 05 00000101 ║♠│ 6 06 00000110 ║•│ 7 07 00000111 ║◘│ 8 08 00001000 ║∘│ 9 09 00001001 ║◙│ 10 0a 00001010 ║♂│ 11 0b 00001011 </td><td>ASC Dec Hex╔═╤════════║►│ 16 10 ║◄│ 17 11 ║↕│ 18 12 ║‼│ 19 13 ║¶│ 20 14 ║§│ 21 15 ║▬│ 22 16 ║↨│ 23 17 ║↑│ 24 18 ║↓│ 25 19 ║→│ 26 1a ║←│ 27 1b </td></tr><tr><td>║─│196 c4 11000100 ║═│205 cd 11001101 </td><td>║││179 b3 ║║│186 ba </td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table> <p class="note">See also: <a href="/facts/ASCII_art/TmgLtCg5">ASCII art</a> and <a href="/facts/Emoticon/f0jk3C14">Emoticon</a></p> <p>The <a href="/facts/US-ASCII/vGUI33Qu">US-ASCII</a> character set and other variants of <a href="/facts/ISO%2fIEC_646/7CdXUnTs">ISO/IEC 646</a> contains 95 <a href="/facts/Graphic_character/aCFyKyDT">graphic characters</a>. It is comparable with a (Latin script) typewriter and insufficient for a quality <a href="/facts/Typography/byx4sANl">typography</a>. But high availability and robustness of ASCII character encoding prompted computer users to invent ASCII substitutes for various glyphs. </p><p>The following ASCII characters are used to approximate certain characters. Note that there are many Latin letters that are homographic to letters of other scripts, however those Latin letters are not listed below. </p> <ul><li>U+0020 SPACE (space): alignment and justification.</li> <li>U+0022 " QUOTATION MARK: various type of <a href="/facts/Quotation_mark_glyphs/hIdA4WEo">double quotes</a>, double prime <a href="/facts/%25E2%2580%25B3/3p9EvU5X">″</a>.</li> <li>U+0023 # NUMBER SIGN: sharp symbol <a href="/facts/Sharp_(music)/dUgIJtHX">♯</a>.</li> <li>U+0027 ' APOSTROPHE: various type of <a href="/facts/Quotation_mark_glyphs/hIdA4WEo">single quotes</a>, <a href="/facts/Apostrophe/vnPUFIYz">apostrophe</a> ’, prime <a href="/facts/%25E2%2580%25B2/3p9EvU5X">′</a>.</li> <li>Parentheses U+0028 ( LEFT PARENTHESIS U+0029 ) RIGHT PARENTHESIS: <a href="/facts/Circle/9fy5ggKn">encircled</a> characters, such as (c) for Copyright symbol <a href="/facts/%25C2%25A9/vKDWhSGv">©</a>.</li> <li>U+002A * ASTERISK – multiplication sign ×, bullet point •</li> <li>U+002B + PLUS SIGN – various symbols with strokes extending to left, up, right and down.</li> <li>U+002D - <a href="/facts/Hyphen-minus/TnWuz7hd">HYPHEN-MINUS</a> – probably an ASCII character the most used for approximations. A conventional representation of <a href="/facts/Hyphen/2qtCxIGv">hyphen</a>, an approximation of <a href="/facts/Dash/suU2rsJa">dash</a> (especially as -- and ---), minus sign <a href="/facts/%25E2%2588%2592/6RJD4Xt9">−</a> and <a href="/facts/Line_drawing_characters/jKI4QHeG">line drawing</a> horizontal line ─ (see the image).</li> <li>U+002E . FULL STOP: various <a href="/facts/Dot_(disambiguation)/URjDdAjb">dot-like</a> symbols, see <a href="/facts/Full_stop/w0Ylafwn">Full stop</a>.</li> <li>U+002F / SOLIDUS – see <a href="/facts/Slash_(punctuation)/fuaRyKzc">Slash (punctuation)</a>.</li> <li>U+0031 1 DIGIT ONE: Turkish <a href="/facts/Dotless_I/uwBmXKXR">dotless ı</a>, Cyrillic <a href="/facts/Palochka/4oIT16Eh">palochka</a> Ӏ.</li> <li>U+0033 3 DIGIT THREE: IPA reversed epsilon <a href="/facts/Open-mid_central_unrounded_vowel/SyJhn7I9">ɜ</a>, Cyrillic letter <a href="/facts/%25D0%2597/WQGxJ272">З</a>.</li> <li>U+0034 4 DIGIT FOUR: Cyrillic letter <a href="/facts/%25D0%25A7/06ENxQ6u">Ч</a>.</li> <li>U+0038 8 DIGIT EIGHT: various non-Latin letters and symbols with similar grapheme.</li> <li>U+003A : COLON – see <a href="/facts/Colon_(punctuation)/se9fjJa4">Colon (punctuation)</a>.</li> <li>U+003C < LESS-THAN SIGN and U+003E > GREATER-THAN SIGN: <a href="/facts/Bracket/yzGM9J8A">chevrons</a> ⟨ ⟩, angle quotes ‹ ›, horizontal <a href="/facts/Arrow_(symbol)/byJNShrg">arrows</a> (especially as digraphs <- and ->).</li> <li>U+003D = EQUALS SIGN: <a href="/facts/Line_drawing_characters/jKI4QHeG">line drawing</a> horizontal double line ═ (see the image), <a href="/facts/Double_hyphen/3UzXYBgl">double hyphen</a>.</li> <li>U+003F ? QUESTION MARK – although not an approximation, the question sign sometimes replaces unrepresented and unrecognized characters.</li> <li>U+0040 @ COMMERCIAL AT – see <a href="/facts/At_sign/6Q03Vo2z">At sign</a>.</li> <li>U+004E N LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N: <a href="/facts/Numero_sign/RR4DoBSf">Numero sign</a> №.</li> <li>U+0054 T LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T: various symbols with strokes extending to left, right and down, but not up.</li> <li>U+0055 U LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U: <a href="/facts/Set_union/KVVXKfWl">set union</a> ∪.</li> <li>U+0056 V LATIN CAPITAL LETTER V: <a href="/facts/Logical_disjunction/jbI2EGlM">logical OR ∨</a>.</li> <li>U+0058 X LATIN CAPITAL LETTER X: <a href="/facts/X_mark/xRYBSPNT">X mark</a> ✗.</li> <li>U+005B [ LEFT SQUARE BRACKET and U+005D ] RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET: <a href="/facts/Checkbox/r8K5WtoR">checkbox</a> and similar <a href="/facts/Rectangle/mdLfIGKA">rectangular</a> pictograms.</li> <li>U+005E ^ CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT: <a href="/facts/Logical_conjunction/62uyyn1d">logical AND ∧</a>, upwards arrow ↑, and similar symbols with the wedge at the top.</li> <li>U+005F _ LOW LINE – see <a href="/facts/Underscore/KJsRo3tA">Underscore</a>.</li> <li>U+0060 ` GRAVE ACCENT – <a href="/facts/Quotation_mark_glyphs/hIdA4WEo">opening single quote</a> ‘.</li> <li>U+0062 b LATIN SMALL LETTER B - flat symbol <a href="/facts/Flat_(music)/gS2acguR">♭</a></li> <li>U+006F o LATIN SMALL LETTER O: <a href="/facts/Bullet_(typography)/DyPRSa50">bullets</a> and various <a href="/facts/Circle/9fy5ggKn">circle</a>-like symbols such as <a href="/facts/Function_composition/r5Pvnmth">∘</a> and ∞ (using two consecutive characters).</li> <li>U+0075 u LATIN SMALL LETTER U: μ — SI prefix <i><a href="/facts/Micro-/VXlL1EhM">micro-</a></i> or lowercase Greek letter <a href="/facts/Mu_(letter)/j1MMkE2w">mu</a></li> <li>U+0076 v LATIN SMALL LETTER V: downwards arrow ↓, and similar symbols with the wedge at the bottom.</li> <li>U+0078 x LATIN SMALL LETTER X: <a href="/facts/Multiplication_sign/XtsHgIbs">multiplication sign</a> ×.</li> <li>U+007C | VERTICAL LINE (on the image, this ASCII character is rendered as a <i>broken bar</i> ¦): <a href="/facts/Line_drawing_characters/jKI4QHeG">line drawing</a> vertical symbols.</li> <li>U+007E ~ TILDE – see <a href="/facts/Tilde/wQTx6ytR">Tilde</a>.</li></ul> <h2 id="approximation-of-non-glyphs">Approximation of non-glyphs</h2> <p>There exist various approximation for <a href="/facts/Typographic_alignment/aG2SXyfl">typographic alignment</a>. For example, <a href="/facts/Justification_(typesetting)/aG2SXyfl">justification</a> may be emulated with inserting of <a href="/facts/Space_(punctuation)/0Um7Qfkq">spaces</a>, and flush-right alignment may be done by padding with spaces. </p><p>There are various techniques for approximation of <a href="/facts/Table_(information)/vQcp2QSb">tables</a> (historically used for <a href="/facts/Text_mode/641fGn4S">text mode</a> displays), such as <a href="/facts/Box-drawing_character/jKI4QHeG">box-drawing characters</a>. </p> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Phin, Christopher (2008-03-29). "Ten typographic mistakes everyone makes". Archived from the original on May 3, 2012. Retrieved August 17, 2015. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120503004644/http://www.recedinghairline.co.uk/files/c1c3be2fda2b218e858029a4bde7e96c-397.html" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20120503004644/http://www.recedinghairline.co.uk/files/c1c3be2fda2b218e858029a4bde7e96c-397.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>