On 04/20/2012 11:04 AM, John Jason Jordan wrote: > > I should have added that I generally follow Bringhurst in matters of > typography, and he recommends the n-dash with spaces rather than the > em-dash or em-dash with spaces. I note that most publishers in the US > use the em-dash without spaces, but I like Bringhurst's view. I added > an autocorrect entry to change a space + hyphen to an en-dash. >
I did some research into this as we were preparing the manual, and like many aspects of typography, there has been a shift in preferences over the years. There used to be a strong preference for em-dashes, and the British typically use them without spaces. In recent years there has been increasing use of en-dashes, usually with spaces. I think you need the spaces with en-dashes so they're not confused with hyphens. With any of the options, whether en-dash, em-dash, comma, parentheses, you need to be careful not to overuse them. A block of text studded with these separators is not pleasing to look at (especially when it's screwing up your linebreaks) and at least mildly annoying to read. Greg
