The time has come to talk about dashes.
Alright, you. Yes, you. It’s time to learn how to use dashes properly!
The advent of AI has made the “em dash” a forbidden glyph. The fact that more people than ever can identify this longest of dashes fills me with the biggest of joys. It means—finally—we can talk about how to use it.
There are actually THREE types of dashes used in typography: the shortest hyphen, the medium “en” dash, and the longest “em” dash.
They each have a specific use and should be used as explained in Robert Bringhurst’s “The Elements of Typographic Style“:
The Hyphen – The shortest straw
[How to type: Mac: Hyphen key – PC: Hyphen key – iOS & Android: Hyphen key]
- Hyphens and half-words
- Phone numbers: 555-123-4567
- No spaces on either side
- Never use double hyphens — ever — Ew.
The “en” Dash – It’s the length of the letter ‘n’
[How to type: Mac: Option-Dash – PC: Alt+0150 on numpad – iOS & Android: Hold Dash, slide to –]
- For ranges like 1922–2015
- This is the dash that traditionally divided thoughts – using a space on either side – to break up a sentence.
The “em” Dash—Guess how long it is now?
[How to type: Mac: Option-Shift-Dash – PC: Alt+0151 on numpad – iOS & Android: Hold Dash, slide to —]
- Divide two thoughts—like a more dignified semicolon
- Use it sparingly—but do not add spaces
- Remember: There are no spaces between em dashes typographically.
Tips:
- Pick en or em and commit. Mixing them is a marker of bad typography and/or AI.
- The double hyphen — is a typewriter workaround from 1910. Also stop double-spacing after periods please.
- AI loves the em dash — improperly like this — desperately, compulsively, without restraint. You can add corrections to your overall AI generator settings.
- You can also divide thoughts with: colons, semicolons; but again sparingly and appropriately.
Thank you for learning about Typography!
Here’s a PDF you can download to remind you:
