Hyphens, En Dashes, Em Dashes
Q. Some authors in the company for which I copyedit have been using an en dash, rather than a hyphen, for the negative sign in negative numbers, i.e., –3 versus -3. Some of our required fonts exaggerate the difference, and occasionally this results in negative signs of varying size in our technical documentation. I would prefer that all authors use the hyphen to create a more consistent look. As CMOS is this company’s style reference guide, I have searched through it for a recommendation regarding this topic but have not found one. Does CMOS have a preference?
A. CMOS prefers the actual minus sign, which is not the same as an en dash, in professionally typeset material. Because of the technical limitations for presentation of mathematics in HTML, however, minus signs are often presented as hyphens on the Web. If you face similar limitations, use the hyphen.
