Common typographic character mistakes – The misused, underused & abused!

Part 1: Apostrophe agony

Misusing the apostrophe is always bait to a grammar purist. Still, if you know your typography, there is often another reason to get upset! More often than not, what’s being passed off as an apostrophe is a prime symbol, and that’s when it stops being a grammar issue and starts being a design emergency.

While they may all look similar, quotes, apostrophes and prime symbols have distinct uses, and using the wrong one can quietly take the polish off your design work.

Quote marks, or typographer’s quotes, and sometimes curly quotes (although not always curly in design; it depends on the font) are used to frame a word, passage, or collection of sentences. They have an open (left) and closed (right) version and come in single and double variants.

An apostrophe is used to indicate possession, and omission should be set as a closed (or right) single quote mark. In most fonts, the single closed quote mark is the same character design as the comma, just positioned higher above the baseline.

Primes are straight, no-nonsense strokes used for measurements only. Single primes denote feet or minutes; double primes mean inches or seconds. They’re not directional and have nothing to do with quotes, speech, or contractions.

Part 2: The Dash Dilemma (and Why the Minus is not invited to the hyphen party)

Let’s get something straight: not all horizontal lines are the same. Misusing dashes and hyphens is among the most common and visible typographic slip-ups.

Hyphen (-): Short and snappy. Used for compound words (co-founder, well-being) and for breaking apart words in justified columns of text, popular in newspapers.

En Dash (–): Slightly longer. Used for ranges (10–20 pages) or connections between things (London–Paris train). Think of it as shorthand for “to” or “and.”

Em Dash (—): The longest one. It is used for breaks in thought, interruptions—and long-winded digressions like this. Think of it like a flamboyant comma. It’s also made a bit of a comeback thanks to large language model AI systems; they seem to like them a lot. Their overuse is becoming a bit of a giveaway that a human didn’t write the text.

Finally, we have the Minus Sign (–), the mathematical cousin that isn't a dash. It is its own symbol, with its spacing and height. Usually, it's the horizontal bar of the + sign and should have the same length and positioning.

Why do all these dashes matter? Clarity is one of the key principles of design and typography. Also, nobody wants a hyphen pretending to do maths!

Part 3: Love your Ligatures

They are often unnoticed, and that's the whole point. When used correctly, they flow inside your typesetting.

Ligatures exist because certain letter combinations don’t sit well together in some typefaces. Take the arm of a lowercase ‘f’ crashing into the dot of an ‘i’ or an ‘l’ clashing with the bar of a ‘t’. Ligatures combine two or even three letters into a single, elegant character.

Good design software and complete OpenType fonts handle ligatures well. Always check if the type you set feels awkward; if the font is well designed, there will be a ligature.

There are also discretionary ligatures. These are decorative and optional and can add a bit of flair when used well. When poorly used, they look like you’re trying too hard.

Ligatures matter because they show care—attention to detail, readability, and rhythm. But more than that, they’re a reminder of what good design is: considered stylistic choices made with intention, not default settings.

If you’re typesetting with ligatures, you’re not just using a font—you’re working with the font. And that makes all the difference.

Part 4: How Did It Come to This? (It’s All the Typewriter’s Fault)

If you’ve made it this far, you might ask yourself—how did we end up here? Why are apostrophes wrong, dashes misused, ligatures ignored, and perfectly adequate minus signs replaced?

Blame the typewriter. In the mechanical age, typewriters didn’t have the luxury of full character sets. They were built for speed and simplicity, not elegance. And so came the compromises—One generic straight quotation mark stood in for apostrophes, quotation marks, and even primes. A single hyphen had to do the job of hyphen, en dash, em dash and minus sign. Ligatures? They're not even in the conversation. Also, don't even get me started on double spaces after a full stop!

Remember that typography is all about intent, so embrace all the typographic tools available in the 21st century. The difference between careless and considered is often just a few characters. When you start noticing the details—when you choose the right dash, the proper apostrophe, the quiet elegance of a ligature—you elevate the work. And whether people realise it consciously or not, they will feel the difference.

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