[OS X TeX] Unexpected quotation marks

[Michael Kubovy]

On Jun 9, 2007, at 2:13 PM, Robert Spence wrote:

> On 09 Jun 2007, at 19:28 , Michael Kubovy wrote:
>
>> Oh, I'm perfectly happy to give 'em muck.
>
> I immediately regretted the wording of that suggestion.  After all,  
> as Linotype says:
> "The Palatino™ typeface was first designed over 50 years ago by  
> Hermann Zapf, and is probably the most universally admired and used  
> of his type designs."
> And in any case, what Dame Nellie Melba really said (to Dame Clara  
> Butt, about Australian audiences) was: "Sing 'em muck, it's all  
> they understand."
>
>> But I do like to produce the best-looking document I can (perhaps  
>> to compensate for weaknesses in the content).In any event, I  
>> discovered that NIH grants may be submitted in Georgia as well.  
>> Even though it looks somewhat archaic (it's darker, and the  
>> numerals are either the size of a lc letter, e.g., 1; or they rise  
>> to the height of an uc letter, e.g., 8, or they descend below the  
>> baseline, e.g., 9). Other than those weaknesses, I don't see the  
>> sorts of aesthetic flaws as I have just learned are a feature of  
>> Palatino.
>
> I'm not sure it's just an aesthetic flaw... more of a conceptual  
> one.  If the idea was to avoid having opening and closing quotes a  
> different shape, why opt for a shape that makes everyone say "those  
> aren't double opening quotes, those are two apostrophes" or  
> something similar? i.e., why choose a "closing" shape rather than a  
> straight up-and-down one?  Apart from the issue of the quotation  
> marks, Palatino is a remarkable font---everything looks chiselled--- 
> really sharp and clear.
>
>> Any views on the aesthetic pros and cons of the two typefaces?
>
> This is a real can of worms. It's almost as bad as asking people  
> what their favourite text editor is.  For me, Georgia connotes arty  
> blogs, and nineteenth century printing;  Palatino suggests  
> Renaissance Italy colliding with postmodernism.  The main issue  
> though would be:
> "What role do numerals play in your text?"
>
> If there's any suggestion of math in the grant application, then  
> Palatino would probably be better.  Apart from that, it probably  
> doesn't make much difference.  Are there any studies on the  
> psychological effect of different typefaces on the readers of grant  
> applications?  Maybe it might be worth putting in a grant  
> application for a research project to investigate that...

Yes. There's math. That clinched it. (Under the Georgian regime,  
there is great discrepancy between the appearance of math and  
numerals in the text.)

Thanks to you, Bruno Voisin, Peter Dyballa, Aaron Jackson, Adam  
Goldstein, Axel Retif, John Vokey, and Herbert Schultz for getting me  
over the Palatino typographical hurdle.
_____________________________
Professor Michael Kubovy
University of Virginia
Department of Psychology
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