yes guillemets I wrote this about 1997-99

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/developers/fdsspec/punc.aspx

Guillemets

These quotation marks commonly called ’French quotes’ or ’duck’s feet’ are said to have been named after a French typecutter Guillaume (William) Le Bé. Guillemets is the French word for quotation marks. The similarly named Guillemot is a narrow billed, sea auk with duck like feet found in cold northern regions of the world.

These pointing quotation marks are used in many languages and point differently dependent on the language. The German language uses these quotation marks with the right pointing guillemets as the open quotation marks and the left pointing guillemts as the close quotation marks. In French typography the left pointing quillemets are used as the open quotation marks and the right pointing quillemets are the closing quotation marks.

Traditionally in French typography the left pointing guillemets are followed by a non-breaking word space or thin space of 1/8 the em and the right proceeded by a non-breaking word space or thin space of 1/8 the em.

* Single left pointing quillemet
Unicode: U+2039

Advance width rule : This character’s advance width is proportional and the same as the single right pointing guillemet.

Height alignment : This character aligns on the lowercase x-height at the same vertical height as the single right guillemet.

* Single right pointing quillemet
Unicode: U+203a

Advance width rule : This character’s advance width is proportional and the same as the single left pointing guillemet.

Height alignment : This character aligns on the lowercase x-height at the same vertical height as the single left pointing guillemet.

* Left pointing quillemets - guillemet ouvrant
Unicode: U+00ab

Advance width rule : This character’s advance width is proportional and the same as the right pointing guillemets.

Height alignment : This character aligns on the lowercase x-height with the same vertical alignment as the right pointing guillemets.

* Right pointing quillemets - guillemet fermant
Unicode: U+00bb

Advance width rule : This character’s advance width is proportional and the same as the left pointing guillemets.

Height alignment : This character aligns on the lowercase x-height with the same vertical alignment as the left pointing guillemets.

Language note : In French typographic usage the left pointing guillemet - guillemet ourvant is followed by a non-breaking word space (espace mots insécable) and the right pointing guillemet - guillemet fermant is preceded by a non-breaking word space. In Microsoft Word 97 the non-breaking space U+00A0 is automatically inserted when the French language is selected and a guillemet is typed. Some French typographers prefer to use a non-breaking thin space (espace fine insécable) with the guillemets.

Vincent Connare

Actually, I checked the character design standards before posting and they don’t help much. What I really need to know is what how to figure out if I’m getting the sidebearings right. Is this just one of those things I have to figure out by eye?

What I really need to know is what how to figure out if I’m getting the sidebearings right.

James, are you worried about this?: “Traditionally in French typography the left pointing guillemets are followed by a non-breaking word space or thin space of 1/8 the em and the right proceeded by a non-breaking word space or thin space of 1/8 the em.”

If your question refers to this, fear not: those spaces are added by the typesetter, not the typeface designer. If you are asking about something else, just ignore this comment. :-)

> Is this just one of those things I have to figure out by eye?

Yes, it is. If you are worried about how well your eye judges this black/white balance, try setting a sample text in InDesign using various good fonts (Adobe fonts, FSI fonts, other favorites you might have…). Grab French and German text from Google News or any other favorite source. Replace the quote marks yourself, or let InDesign do it for you (it should switch them automatically if you change the text’s language to French, for instance). See how text set in these fonts look. Make print-outs. Compare with the same text set in your font. Then you will see. It isn’t so hard; you just have to trust you eyes and your intuition.