What's the right term for those leaves & curlicues printers can use to mark divisions inside a chapter?

Question

They aren't "printer's marks" (the term I thought I remembered) or "printer's devices". Both terms mean a more or less elaborate colophon at the ends of books.

I'm talking about the pretty little things scattered through the text, sometimes only as large as 2 characters together, as a substitute for a blank line, or substituting for or supplementing a paragraph starting w/o an indent.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Dingbat or Printer's Ornament, if I understand you correctly

? · Answer

"Space between paragraphs in a section break is sometimes accompanied by an asterism (either proper ⁂ or manual * * *), a horizontal rule, fleurons, or by other ornamental symbols. An ornamental symbol used as section break does not have a generally accepted name. Such a typographic device can be specifically referred to as dinkus, space break symbol, paragraph separator, paragraph divider, horizontal divider, thought break, or as an instance of filigree or flourish. Ornamental section breaks can be created using glyphs, rows of lozenge, dingbats, or other miscellaneous symbols. Fonts such as Webdings and Wingdings include many such glyphs."

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What's the right term for those leaves & curlicues printers can use to mark divisions inside a chapter?

2 Answers