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Triple Star: Typography's Asterism
Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: Alexander Humez, asterisk, asterism, César Cui, Microsoft Word, Nicholas Humez, Pollux, punctuation, Richard Taruskin, typography, Unicode
Pollux writes:
You don’t see the asterism very much. Three asterisks in a triangular or linear formation, the asterism is used in typography to indicate minor breaks or subchapters in a text.
Printers sometimes use it to call attention to a passage that follows, as explained in the fascinating book by Alexander and Nicholas Humez called On the Dot: the Speck that Changed the World. A terminal punctuation character, the asterism can be seen at the end of chapters, but also at the end of verses or stories.
Also known as a triple asterisk, the asterism had some other functions in past centuries.
According to Richard Taruskin in his Oxford History of Western Music, the asterism was used to denote an omission of some kind in 19th century typography. If the name of an author was unknown, for example, an asterism was used in place of the name.
19th century Russian music critic César Antonovich Cui used an asterism as his nom de plume (Taruskin, 311). This was because Cui had a day job that prohibited him from journalistic activities: Cui was a Russian army officer and wrote treatises on fortresses and fortifications.
How do you type the asterism? Only certain fonts support the Unicode character for the asterism, which is U+2042. According to this site, the fonts that support the asterism include Arial Unicode MS, Cardo, DejaVu Sans, and Linux Libertine.
If you’re using Microsoft Word, click on “Insert” and then “Symbol.” In the “Font” drop-down, change the font to Arial Unicode MS. The asterism will show up under the “General Punctuation” subset, but you can also find it by typing “2042” in the character code window. Click on “Insert” or you can use the shortcut key of 2042, Alt + X. Watch it appear! Your subchapter will thank you for it.
So there’s more to the asterism than just a pile of asterisks. Its appearance seems to me a cry for love and attention. So beautiful, and so ignored. Write a letter to an asterism (it may get directed to the ghost of Cui) here.
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Hello! We're a small band of media enthusiasts, culture addicts, and journalists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, formerly a New Yorker fan site, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, politics, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Writing on theater: reviews (for Time Out Chicago; imperfect but workable search results)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
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Comments
Great site. A lot of useful information here. I’m sending it to some friends!
Thank you!
how do I type the asterism?
Pam, great question! I’ve added a section that hopefully answers it for you.