Common Typesetting Errors

With the most common ones listed first.

Spaces for alignment

Spaces should never be used to simulate indents, margins, center/right alignment, tab stops, or tables. (Exception: Monospaced text with manual line breaks.)

Overuse of underline

Underline is an artifact from the days of handwriting and typewriters. Today, bold is used in its place for headings and italics is used in its place for emphasis and titles of works. However, underline has a new significance: hyperlinks.

Centre

Centre is for short text, which are often headings. It should not be overused.

Non-indented hanging lines in lists

After the first line, lines should start where the first letter (excluding list bullets/numbers) of the first line starts.

Proper punctuation characters

Curved single and double quotation marks, en and em dashes, minus signs, cross (multiplication) symbol, angle brackets, and more. And don’t get me started on how wrong it is to use a grave accent ("backtick") as an opening single quotation mark.

Paragraphs or line breaks for vertical white space

That’s what "space before paragraph" and "space after paragraph" are for.

Last modified: 2007-05-19-Sat
Created: 2007-04-20-Fri