Typophile

How to treat a TM symbol when used at end of sentence in body copy

rsinclair

What's the proper treatment of a trademark symbol when it appears at the end of a sentence in body copy, which itself ends with a period?

If the TM symbol is treated like any other character, and a period follows it, there's an unsightly gap between the last "real" letter in the word of the sentence and the closing period.

Sometimes I'll manually track in the period until it sits underneath the TM symbol (and appears where it normally would if there wasn't a TM symbol at all) but this can look busy.

Is one of the two above treatments preferred, or is there another method?

Thanks,
R

Don McCahill

I would follow your idea of tracking it in, but if it is looking busy, then you probably have tracked too much. You only want to make it look less out of place.

Tiffany Wardle

I'd agree. Not too much, the period still needs to visually follow, even if only by a T. ;^)

Joffre LeFevre

Just a note. If you cannot kern the trademark symbol and the period to your satisfaction, edit the sentance so the trademark does not appear at the end.

Ricardo Cordoba

Kern, baby, kern. You don't have to kern it all the way in, as if the TM symbol wasn't there, but you should bring it in a little, at least. It's not too different from having a closing quote mark at the end of a sentence.

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