Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books
A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology

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diacritical marks

Marks over, under, after, or through various letters in the alphabets of several languages, designed to indicate the nature or stress of the sounds they represent. While lowercase letters having accent marks are cast as units, in display printing it is sometimes necessary to cast accent marks separately, i.e., the so-called floating accents. In library binding, diacritical marks are generally added by hand after the case has been blocked. Commonly used marks include: 
    acute                       ´
    cedilla                     ¸
    circumflex                  ˆ
    Umlaut (or dieresis)        ¨
    grave                       `
    tilde                       ~




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