We recently had a vote off on whether or not hanging punctuation should be used on a specific layout. I’m generally always pro hanging punctuation, but if you are not used to seeing it, it can look like an error. Hanging punctuation is the positioning of punctuation, most commonly quotes and hyphens, to create an illusion of a uniform edge of text. It is called “hanging” because the punctuation appears to “hang” outside the text margin, and is not incorporated into the text block. It is commonly used when text is fully justified, in pull quotes, and in our situation, when the text is right aligned.

We use hanging punctuation because our eyes visually like to see things aligned and in order. When we have a odd shaped glyph (such as a quotation mark) our eyes notice the blank gap it can leave behind. When we move the glyph outside of the text block, we remove that odd space, giving the appearance of a cleaner edge. The smaller glyphs don’t hold as much visual weight and will seemingly disappear when hung outside. In Adobe InDesign, there is an automated function to aid in all of your hanging punctuation needs. To try it for yourself follow these easy steps:

1. With text selected, choose Type > Story to open the Story palette
2. Check the Optical Margin Adjustment box
3. Enter an amount of overhang (how much the punctuation and serifs will fall outside the margin edges) Note: Start by setting the overhang the same as the text size then adjust as necessary.

To get the hanging punctuation like in the example image above, (If using InDesign) place your cursor after quote mark (“) and then press command and the pipe symbol (|) and the text will automatically align to the first letter in your quote. Happy hanging!