Re: [Groff] Handling '...'

[Tadziu Hoffmann]

> Using .\|.\|. is too "spread out", but the \^ space looks very nice,
> and is much simpler.

>> Note that the effect depends on the font. In particular, in a
>> fixed-width font (like Courier Roman, \f[CR]), your "..." will
>> come out with each dot spaced on by the fixed width of a character,
>> and will look bad. In that case moving the dots closer together,
>> as in
>>
>> .char \[el] .\h'-0.25n'.\h'-0.25n'.
>>
>> would produce a better result.

I beg to differ.  There is a general tendency these days to set
the ellipsis way to tight (such as in the predefined "ellipsis"
character in most fonts).  Therefore: in a monospaced font such
as Courier, use "..." without negative space.  In a proportional
font such as Times, use a full space between dots: ".\~.\~."
(even "\|" is too tight, let alone "\^").
Take a look at some paperback novels from a few years back.
They always use a loosely spaced ellipsis with full spaces.