En (typography)
Encyclopedia
An en is a typographic unit
, half of the width of an em
. By definition, it is equivalent to half of the height of the font (e.g. in 16 point
type it is 8 points). As its name suggests, it is also traditionally the width of a lowercase letter "n".
The en dash (–) and en space
( ) are each one en wide. In English, the en dash is commonly used for inclusive ranges (e.g., "pages 12–17" or "August 7, 1988 – November 26, 2005"), and increasingly to replace the long dash. (Note that when using it to replace a long dash, spaces are needed either side of it – like so.)
Typographic unit
Typographic units are the units of measurement used in typography or typesetting. The traditional units are different from common metric units, as they were established earlier. Even though these units are all very small, across a line of print they add up quickly...
, half of the width of an em
Em (typography)
An em is a unit of measurement in the field of typography, equal to the currently specified point size.The name of em is related to M. Originally the unit was derived from the width of the capital "M" in the given typeface....
. By definition, it is equivalent to half of the height of the font (e.g. in 16 point
Point (typography)
In typography, a point is the smallest unit of measure, being a subdivision of the larger pica. It is commonly abbreviated as pt. The point has long been the usual unit for measuring font size and leading and other minute items on a printed page....
type it is 8 points). As its name suggests, it is also traditionally the width of a lowercase letter "n".
The en dash (–) and en space
Space (punctuation)
In writing, a space is a blank area devoid of content, serving to separate words, letters, numbers, and punctuation. Conventions for interword and intersentence spaces vary among languages, and in some cases the spacing rules are quite complex....
( ) are each one en wide. In English, the en dash is commonly used for inclusive ranges (e.g., "pages 12–17" or "August 7, 1988 – November 26, 2005"), and increasingly to replace the long dash. (Note that when using it to replace a long dash, spaces are needed either side of it – like so.)
See also
- DashDashA dash is one of several kinds of punctuation mark. Dashes appear similar to hyphens, but differ from them primarily in length, and serve different functions. The most common versions of the dash are the en dash and the em dash .-Common dashes:...
- Em (typography)Em (typography)An em is a unit of measurement in the field of typography, equal to the currently specified point size.The name of em is related to M. Originally the unit was derived from the width of the capital "M" in the given typeface....
- x-heightX-heightIn typography, the x-height or corpus size refers to the distance between the baseline and the mean line in a typeface. Typically, this is the height of the letter x in the font , as well as the u, v, w, and z...