Rounded guillemets

Martin LAllier7 July 2005 · 14:30

One thing we rarely enjoy, when typesetting in french, is the opportunity to have rounded guillemets.

No one is to blame of course!
This form has always been rare and can mostly only be found in fonts by Imprimerie Nationale (as the exemple here provided shows).

Whats the advantage? Some typefaces have pointed guillemets which are - to my taste - too visible. Rounded ones would be softer to the eye and blend in better in text - much like the quotes (“such”).

Attachment	Size
guillemets_ronds.gif	11.51 KB

Dan Reynolds7 July 2005 · 14:36

The only drawback that I can think of that it it could be ((possible)) that they be confused for parentheses.

__
www.typeoff.de

Martin LAllier7 July 2005 · 14:51

If they're drawn too large yes.

But if they're the same size as pointed guillemets it can work.
http://www.cestmartin.com/carnet/images/guillemets_ronds2.jpg

Hrant H Papazian7 July 2005 · 17:10

1) It depends on the overall design of the face.
2) It depends how much/little they should stand out. Formal harmony is great for display setting, but during immersion you often need a little jolt.

My favorite guillemets? The ones in IN's "Nouvelle Gravure".
As far as I'm concerned they can be used for both French and English!
Did I put a sample of them on Typophile recently? I'm blanking out.

hhp

paul d hunt7 July 2005 · 17:52

i must admit, i am quite font of the guillemets that i put in LTC Caslon.

Hrant H Papazian7 July 2005 · 17:55

> i am quite font

Now that's funny.

Those are buties though!

hhp

paul d hunt7 July 2005 · 18:04

type on the brain... heh

Martin LAllier8 July 2005 · 11:41

Good point Hrant about display usage. Maybe such guillemets would be a good option (opentype “.alt”) in that context, especially.

Khaled Hosny10 March 2010 · 06:34

I know this i an ancient thread, but...
Arabic uses rounded guillemets as additional quotation marks besides regular single and double quotation marks, And French-like guillemets are never used in a serious publication.

Hrant H Papazian10 March 2010 · 06:58

There are different kinds of serious.

hhp

Khaled Hosny10 March 2010 · 07:55

I meant seriousness in production not content, well, If I'd to rephrase it I'd say: in any good quality typeset book, e.g. any pre-computer work.

Hrant H Papazian10 March 2010 · 08:36

There are different kinds of quality. :-)
For example, I think a blind reliance on the conventional quotes for English
typesetting indicates a lack of seriousness in terms of typographic progress.

hhp

Captured from web.archive.org on 27 Jan 2014. view this capture