[IxDA Discuss] Bringing typography to design – High-ASCII

[David Cortright]

I recently got interested in typography and read a bunch of books on it. In
the process, I discovered that, in the standard fonts, there are a lot of
unused glyphs that simply don't get used because there is no easy way to
access them. Well, that plus I don't suppose very many designers are aware
of them as options.

There's a great Windows utility out there called AutoHotKey that – among
it's manay capabilities – let's you create auto-correct shortcuts where one
string of text is automatically replaced by another (much like the way
Office works). I created a script that gives me easy access to high-ASCII
characters, giving me more options when designing UI using text. The basic
concept is to use the grave accent as an escape character, so typing `.
gives a middle dot · and * gives a bullet • and `x gives the multiplication
sign × and so on. I've included my latest script below if you want to download
AutoHotKey <http://www.autohotkey.com/download/> and try it out yourself.

I've found it most useful for using proper fractions like 1½, using proper
dimensions like 1024×768, using the em dash as you can see throughout this
email, and – my favorite – using a middle dot intead of a hyphen to ·
separate · items · on · a · line. I hope you find it useful.

·Dave


 ; high-ASCII punctuation auto-correct
; by David Cortright

#HotString C Z * ?
; punctuation and math with no escape character
::``--::—
::--::–
::1//4::¼
::1//2::½
::3//4::¾
::^0::º
::^1::¹
::^2::²
::^3::³
::^o::°
::^a::ª
::(C)::(c)
::(c)::(c)
::(R)::(r)
::(r)::(r)
::(tm)::™
::(TM)::™
::<<::«
::>>::»
::+-::±
::+`_::±
::...::…

; math, currency and punctuation
::``mu::µ
::``x::×
::``/::÷
::``.::·
::``*::•
::``+::†
::``=::‡
::``p::¶
::``P::¶
::``S::§
::``c=::€
::``C=::€
::``l-::£
::``L-::£
::``y=::¥
::``Y=::¥
::``c|::¢
::``C|::¢
::``ox::¤
::``?::¿
::``!::¡
::````::´
::``'::''
::``"::""
::```<::‹
::```>::›
::``|::¦
::``_::¯
::``%::‰
::``1/4::¼
::``1/2::½
::``3/4::¾
::``0::º
::``1::¹
::``2::²
::``3::³
::``o::°

; Latin characters
::``ae::æ
::``AE::Æ
::``oe::œ
::``OE::Œ
::``TH::Þ
::``th::þ
::``D-::Ð
::``d-::ð
::``f::ƒ
::``s::ß

; tilde & ring using ~ and o
::``Ao::Å
::``ao::å
::``A~::Ã
::``a~::ã
::``N~::Ñ
::``n~::ñ
::``O~::Õ
::``o~::õ

; cedillia & stroke using , and /
::``c,::ç
::``C,::Ç
::``O/::Ø
::``o/::ø

; acute accent using '
::``A'::Á
::``a'::á
::``E'::É
::``e'::é
::``I'::Í
::``i'::í
::``O'::Ó
::``o'::ó
::``U'::Ú
::``u'::ú
::``Y'::Ý
::``y'::ý

; grave accent using `
::``A``::À
::``a``::à
::``E``::È
::``e``::è
::``I``::Ì
::``i``::ì
::``O``::Ò
::``o``::ò
::``U``::Ù
::``u``::ù

; diaeresis using :
::``A`:::Ä
::``a`:::ä
::``E`:::Ë
::``e`:::ë
::``I`:::Ï
::``i`:::ï
::``O`:::Ö
::``o`:::ö
::``U`:::Ü
::``u`:::ü
::``Y`:::Ÿ
::``y`:::&

; diaeresis using ;
::``A`;::Ä
::``a`;::ä
::``E`;::Ë
::``e`;::ë
::``I`;::Ï
::``i`;::ï
::``O`;::Ö
::``o`;::ö
::``U`;::Ü
::``u`;::ü
::``Y`;::Ÿ
::``y`;::&

; circumflex using ^
::``A^::Â
::``a^::â
::``E^::Ê
::``e^::ê
::``I^::Î
::``i^::î
::``O^::Ô
::``o^::ô
::``U^::Û
::``u^::û

; caron using v
::``ZV::Ž
::``Zv::Ž
::``zv::ž
; change § to SS and ß to ss if you turn these on
; ::``SV::Š
; ::``Sv::Š
; ::``sv::š

; escaped escape character – type a space after it
::`` ::``