[XeTeX] Typographic question : quotation marks and apostrophes

[William Adams]

On Dec 15, 2011, at 9:30 AM, Philip TAYLOR wrote:

> I know that a number of excellent typographers inhabit this
> list, so I would like to pick their brains if I may ?
> 
> In "Two wide ‘weaver’s windows’, usually found on the ground floor"
> (which could equally well be "Two wide ‘weavers’ windows’, usually
> found on the ground floor", but I am not the author), the apostrophe
> of "weaver’s/weavers’" is the same Unicode character as the closing
> quotation mark of "windows’".  Should it be ?

A long while ago there was a discussion about how there should be distinct characters for each such usage. It generated a lot of noise and little useful dialogue.

Typographically, I would tweak this by slightly lowering the apostrophe (or slightly raising the quote marks), or by setting the phrase in italics or small caps, but these are all matters of the style of the document in question, not over-arching English usage.

William

-- 
William Adams
senior graphic designer
Fry Communications
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.