Styleguide

This styleguide mostly applies to posts published in the last couple of years (after 2022 or so). Earlier posts on this blog may or may not follow these personal rules.

This document is being updated on a regular basis.

Rules

Et cætera

A few years ago, I discovered that a possible (if ancient) abreviation for et cætera was using the ampersand instead of “et”, resulting in a beautiful “&c.” Because it looks so cool, almost like a logo, I try to use it everywhere I can. It was also part of the former identity of this website, before it was named The Jolly Teapot.

Artificial intelligence

I use periods to write A.I., that way I avoid having “Al” on screen, which, depending on the font used and the sentence, can be a little confusing. Yes, I didn’t write A.I. before, it was just “Al,” with an L, like in Al Green.

British or US English

A few years ago, I switched to British English. It’s how I learned it at school after all, and I felt like it’s the least I can do to thank my middle school and high school teachers. I don’t care too much about it though, so my apologies for the hybridness of it all.

Title casing

I tend avoid using English title case on digital media: for a book cover I have no issues, but on screen, I find it weird and clunky. I prefer using sentence case for titles (closer to what we do in French), or more or less “french title case”

Dashes

Blot typography taught me what proper dashes looked liked in terms of spacing, so this is what I’m using now. Even have a BBedit script for it.

OS names

I dont write macOS, I keep MacOS, etc.

Footnotes

I try to avoid using footnotes if only one is displayed: I don’t like to see the numbered list only display “1” / I would if single item list could be replaced with an asterisk, but it feels like too much work.

Inline quotes

I try to use italics for inline quotes. It feels a bit redundant to use both quotation marks and italics, but I prefer it.

Blockquotes

Blockquotes are not in italics, even if I wouldn’t mind this redundancy; it has more to do about keeping things simple CSS-wise. I also try to not end a post with a blockquote, it looks weird.

Periods

I am a free spirit when it comes to final punctuation in list items, and sentences that and with a parenthesis or quotation mark.

I don’t use periods in titles, because I’m not a monster. One of two may have found their way in some places, and for that I apologise.

Updated 5 Oct 2025・Why I created a styleguide