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First published on 31st January 2004 at 01:07:02

This is an article on how should be rendered French punctuation in (X)HTML, with generated-content in lieu of actual code.

French rules for syntax varies from the English ones. While English language just add the punctuation sign immediately after the sentence, the French language insert special spaces: namely, non-breakable space ( , or alt+shift+space on a Mac) and thin non-breakable space ( , no keyboard equivalent that I know of).

For know, I manually insert these spaces. Being presentational information, I should not have to write them in the code.

The rules

Short version

There is a non-breakable space before the colon (:) and a thin unbreakable space before most other punctuation signs. For the rest (“coupled-punctuations like parenthesis, quotation marks, brackets…), comon sense applies.

Long version

Source: Lexique des règles typographiques en usage à l’Imprimerie Nationale

So far, I found Authoring Techniques for XHTML & HTML Internationalization 1.0. I also know that IE5/Mac used to handles French punctuation quite well (and that Mozilla doesn’t).

I’d like to end with an important note: I’m publishing this request about French punctuation because this the language I know the best. Obviously, this must not be considered as a “request for good French support, but as a request for “good internationalization support. That means all written languages. French-speaking persons are often considered invasive, if not picky, about their tongue on the Internet. I want to make sure this is not the way my request will be considered.