Non-Designer’s Type Book, The, Second Edition

Em Dashes

Convention decrees that we set em dashes with no space on either side — like so. But those long dashes often bump right into the letters and have to be manually letterfit. Many people insist on using a space on either side of the em dash, which exacerbates the interruption in the reading and creates an even larger gap in the overall look of the type. Some expert sets contain a wonderful character that solves this problem—a ¾-em dash with a thin space built into both sides. You have to look for it, unfortunately.