English-language locale reference

French Typography Rules

French typography is especially sensitive to guillemet spacing and high-punctuation spacing, with meaningful differences among France, Switzerland, and Canada.

FRFR CHFR CA
Publication locale, not translation

This page is written in English. The locale codes describe the text being typeset and the convention Avellio applies; they do not indicate the language of this web page.

At a glance

Quotation marks

Guillemets are primary. Avellio’s France profile expects narrow no-break spaces inside the pair.

Punctuation spacing

The FR engine profile deliberately expects U+202F before : ; ! ? as a consistent detection model. W3C guidance distinguishes U+00A0 before a colon from U+202F before ; ! ?; Canadian, Swiss, and publisher practice can differ.

Non-breaking spaces

Use protected spaces where punctuation or symbols must stay with text; document whether the house style uses NBSP or NNBSP.

Dates

Day–month–year is the profile model.

Numbers

France and Canada use space grouping and decimal comma in the Avellio model; French Switzerland uses Swiss grouping.

Currency

France favors spaced suffix € or EUR; Swiss profiles use CHF/Fr.; Canadian dollar placement depends on the selected Canadian style.

Units

Protected number–unit spacing and percent spacing are normally expected by the profile.

Regional variants

FR CH combines French spacing with Swiss numeric/currency behavior. FR CA remains conservative where Canadian style authorities differ.

FRFR CHFR CA

House-style caveat

The Avellio FR detector is a documented product model, not a claim that every French authority uses identical space widths. Record the publication’s policy when it differs.

How to use this with Avellio

  1. Assign accurate InDesign paragraph languages before relying on AUTO.
  2. Use an explicit profile when one regional convention governs the complete scope.
  3. Run a new Typography Audit after changing locale.
  4. Read locale source, specificity, confidence, and context together.
  5. Correct ambiguous dates, numbers, currencies, and complete quote pairs manually.
Open the complete Avellio locale reference

References

  1. Avellio User Manual — Locale profile referenceAvellio product source
  2. W3C Internationalization — Quote marksInternationalization reference
  3. W3C — French punctuation spacingInternationalization reference
  4. Unicode CLDR — Number and currency patternsLocale data standard