Special Characters in Affinity - quick reference chart

[MikeTO]

@Oufti Thanks, I'll use that for Medium Mathematical Space in the next version someday but note there's no accent in spatie. And as @walt.farrell pointed out, Em/En-spatie are already used for Em/En Space.

Em/en quad serve no purpose in digital typography which is why Affinity doesn't show special characters for them, they take up the same horizontal and vertical space as em/en space. I just included them in my chart for completeness in case anybody stumbles across them, especially when importing text from another application.

I also like having these complete lists of translated terms because they're surprisingly difficult to find. There must have been a term for em/en quad in Dutch prior to digital typography but I can't find it online.

Cheers

[walt.farrell]

14 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

Em/en quad serve no purpose in digital typography which is why Affinity doesn't show special characters for them, they take up the same horizontal and vertical space as em/en space. I just included them in my chart for completeness in case anybody stumbles across them, especially when importing text from another application.

From your description of them, though, em/en quad are not "non-breaking" like em/en space are, which would seem to give them a purpose: An em/en space if the surrounding characters are on the same line, but do not force them to be on the same line.

Or should their description be amended?

[MikeTO]

31 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

From your description of them, though, em/en quad are not "non-breaking" like em/en space are, which would seem to give them a purpose: An em/en space if the surrounding characters are on the same line, but do not force them to be on the same line.

Or should their description be amended?

The descriptions are correct so you're right, there is one use case where you might use them.

[Oufti]

2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

em/en quad are not "non-breaking" like em/en space are

I would then precise it in the name or description (even for other languages, as you did for English. In French, insécable=non-breaking and sécable=breaking) : 

em/en quad = breekbare em/en [+spatie if one wants] or Em/en spatie (breekbaar)

em/en space = onbreekbare em/en[+spatie] or Em/en spatie (onbreekbaar)

 

2 hours ago, MikeTO said:

There must have been a term for em/en quad in Dutch prior to digital typography

Since the difference is only the fact they are breakable or not, there was no point before computer composition to distinguish them: in older time, the decision to break or not was made by the typesetter operator.

[MikeTO]

5 hours ago, Oufti said:

I would then precise it in the name or description (even for other languages, as you did for English. In French, insécable=non-breaking and sécable=breaking) : 

em/en quad = breekbare em/en [+spatie if one wants] or Em/en spatie (breekbaar)

em/en space = onbreekbare em/en[+spatie] or Em/en spatie (onbreekbaar)

I will add non-breaking to all the applicable spaces in the other languages if I can make room. It's starting to get a bit tight.

I think the more common word for non-breaking in Dutch is "vaste" and not "onbreekbare". A "vaste spatie" is the name for a non-breaking space. This is the term used by Adobe.

5 hours ago, Oufti said:

Since the difference is only the fact they are breakable or not, there was no point before computer composition to distinguish them: in older time, the decision to break or not was made by the typesetter operator.

It turns out Publisher handles quads differently than InDesign, although it matches ID for breaking and not-breaking. I believe that in ID, an em quad is always one em wide, regardless of the horizontal scale, while an em space scales like a normal character.

[Oufti]

2 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

I think the more common word for non-breaking in Dutch is "vaste" and not "onbreekbare". A "vaste spatie" is the name for a non-breaking space. This is the term used by Adobe.

Vast(e) is certainly good. It means "solid", thus unbreakable.  

[MikeTO]

I've updated the chart again, now with a Ukrainian version. Thank you to @anto for his help in making this much better than it would have been!

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/176386-special-characters-in-affinity-quick-reference-chart/

 

[MikeTO]

And now a Spanish version

[MikeTO]

And now a Polish version

[MikeTO]

And now Italian and Portuguese versions. I think I'm done for a while. 🙂 

[MikeTO]

I added Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Danish versions of this special characters chart.

Cheers

[Saeta]

In Spanish, the name of the first two markers has been changed. The first one should be “ Posición del ancla” and the second one “Posición de la fijación” 😉

[MikeTO]

8 hours ago, Saeta said:

In Spanish, the name of the first two markers has been changed. The first one should be “ Posición del ancla” and the second one “Posición de la fijación” 😉

Thank you, I've fixed it now.

Cheers

[DogHouseGraphics]

As a new convert to Affinity software your Special Characters chart is much appreciated.

[bediicco]

Wow, thanks very much for the german version 💫

[StephanP]

Some Dutch improvement suggestions in attached pdf

 

Speciale tekens (NL suggestions).pdf

[MikeTO]

On 1/3/2025 at 4:31 AM, StephanP said:

Some Dutch improvement suggestions in attached pdf

Thank you, especially for 'whitespace' which I wasn't able to find a good translation for.

I've updated the Dutch chart in the first post of this thread.

Cheers

[Daniel Höpfl]

Minor correction for the German version.

It says “mit Ausnahme derjenigen, die nicht im Menü Einfügen (gekennzeichnet durch *)” (English: “except for those not in the Insert menu (identified by *)”).

You need a verb here. I’d use (in order of my preference):

1. “mit Ausnahme derjenigen, die nicht im Menü Einfügen zu finden sind (gekennzeichnet durch *)”
   (“except those that cannot be found in the Insert menu”)
2. “mit Ausnahme derjenigen, die im Menü Einfügen fehlen (gekennzeichnet durch *)”
   (“except those missing in the Insert menu”)
3. “mit Ausnahme derjenigen, die nicht im Menü Einfügen sind (gekennzeichnet durch *)”
   (“except those that are not in the Insert menu”)
4. “mit Ausnahme derjenigen, die nicht im Menü Einfügen aufgelistet sind (gekennzeichnet durch *)”
   (“except those that are not listed in the Insert menu”)

To shorten it a bit, you could use “im Menü zu finden sind” instead of “im Menü Einfügen zu finden sind”. Repeating the menu title is not necessary here, IMO.

[MikeTO]

@Daniel Höpfl Thank you, I'll use your preferred wording. I'll make the change in the next version.

 

[MikeTO]

@Daniel Höpfl I've updated the chart with the German instructions now.

I've added a new Czech chart

I've also improved the translation of em and en quad in the French, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese charts.