French Punctuation
Set of rules for french punctuation:
- Some length
- Espace fine (small space) : one point.
- Espace avant-fine (eng ?) : one point and half (1pt ½)
- Moyenne (half) : quart de cadratin (quart of em) (¼ em).
- Forte ou grosse : tiers de cadratin (word space) (1/3 em)
- Rules
- « ; », « ? », « ! » : get a small non breakable space before if the sign before is a letter or a number (id est « !!! » or « …! » and not « ! ! ! » or « … ! »). Justified space after. The small non breakable space can vary a little to adapt the justification.
- « : » : get a non breakable space before. Smaller than a normal space, bigger than a small. x:y where 1pt < x < y and y = justified space
- « . », « , » : nothing before (not like in english). Justified space after
- « — » (em dash). When used for a parenthesis, I think we must ask people to put a « ~ » or « bar —~foo bar~— foo ». And the result is « barx—yfoo bary′—x′ foo ». Where x=y and x′=y′. y and y′ are non breakable spaces.
- of course, in an enumeration, the space after « — » have a fix space.
- « * », « † », « ‡ », « ¹ », « ² », etc. : all notes get an small non breakable space before, are before the punctuation, follow with the space depending of the punctuation.
- if the note is a letter, between parenthesis, they must be in italic.
- The inner space of quotation — “«” and “»” — use small non breakable spaces. «xfoox». x = small non breakable space.
Sorry for my bad english… « translation » welcome !