Lloyd Robert Borrett

  search
 
Insight

  This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Lloyd Borrett's Blog
Are we there yet?
 

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

There is usually only one space after a period 

I received a document from a friend the other day. Yet again I found two spaces after each period. It simply amazes me how this hangover from the typewriter age still persists.

Let me explain.

When a typewriter (the old-fashioned mechanical kind) types a letter, the carriage moves ahead by a set increment in preparation for typing the next letter. This increment is always the same. This means that typewriter typefaces have to be designed so that all the characters occupy the same amount of space on the line. These are so called "mono-spaced" typefaces.

In mechanical terms, you would say all of the letters of a mono-spaced typeface have the same "escapement," which is the distance the typewriter mechanism moves. In computer terms, you would say that they all have the same "character width." Creating mono-spaced typefaces calls for characters that have unnatural proportions. Wide characters can be squeezed, but narrow characters can only be designed to be so wide, so many of them (especially punctuation) have a lot of white space on either side of them.

The overall effect of this kind of typeface design is that the type you set using them looks very loosely spaced on the page. Thus, if you use only one word space at the end of a typewritten sentence, it's not wide enough to make an appreciable gap between one sentence and the one that follows it. This gap is a visual cue that you're transitioning from one sentence to the next, and if the space is too small, this cue just doesn't do its job.

More concisely put, double word spaces between typewritten sentences of mono-spaced typefaces help to make the type look more naturally spaced and enable it to be read more easily.

Thus in the days of the typewriter and fixed- or mono-spaced typefaces, people were taught to put two spaces after a period. Unfortunately, that teaching style seems to be still in the system, regardless that people are typically now using computers and proportionally spaced typefaces.

The typesetting systems used to produce books, magazines, newspapers etc. use proportionally spaced typefaces, where the width of each character can be customised to accommodate the natural shapes of the letters. For example, the width of the letter "i" is much smaller than the width of the letter "m". When this happens, type sets more tightly, which makes word spaces stand out more. A result is that one word space after a sentence is sufficient to provide that visual cue. Two spaces after a period simply look too wide.

Almost all books, magazines and newspapers are typeset with proportionally spaced typefaces. Pick up one and take a look. You'll see there is only one space after a period.

Today, when using computers, most of the typefaces available are proportionally spaced. Thus when using a word processor program, a desktop publishing program, a web page publishing program, e-mail program etc. with proportionally spaced typefaces, the correct solution is just one space after a period. Only when explicitly using a fixed- or mono-spaced typeface like Courier should two spaces be used.

So ultimately it's an issue of aesthetics and readability. The best solution on a typewriter with a mono-spaced typeface is two spaces between sentences, but on a computer when using a proportionally spaced typeface the best solution is just one space.

So if you were taught to put two spaces after a period, it's time to unlearn that habit. Now that you are aware of the issue and understand when to use two spaces and when to use one space, you will find that there is usually only one space after a period.


6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lloyd,
It is, of course, your opinion that one space at the end of a sentence is enough and that two look like too much. And you are certainly entitled to your opinion, even though you are wrong.
Computers don't change the fact that two spaces are still important to distinguish the end of a sentence from the end of a word.
-will

- - - - - 27 August, 2004 16:54  
Blogger Lloyd Borrett said...

Well it is not just my opinion. It is also the opinion of the entire publishing industry, over a few centuries. And to those who come from a publishing industry background, two spaces after a period is the sign of a rank novice at work.

- - - - - 30 August, 2004 16:58  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sorry to read the story of Danny and Jessie.

But sorry, Lloyd. It's two spaces for me, too. ;)

Unless you'd like the advent of computer typefaces to obviate the need for that extra L in your name, too! :D

Is beginning a sentence with "And" still frowned upon? And why do you call novices "rank"? What does body odor have to do with it?

- - - - - 30 August, 2004 18:42  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What about inappropriate apostrophes?!!!

- - - - - 01 September, 2004 20:06  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The white space above the period adds to the visual clue. In the old days, then the white space added up to three spaces counting the period. With most fonts, both a period and a space are more like half a letter. The result is that the visual clue shrinks to one and one half space. Then the new Lord of Punctuation comes along and takes one of them away.
The comparison between letters and spaces is irrelevant. So is your claim to speak for the publishing industry. Neither they nor you are authorized to dictate punctuation rules.
Further, this is my post and not yours, and you don't have my permission to edit it. I use two spaces because I want to.
-w

- - - - - 03 September, 2004 15:37  
Blogger Lloyd Borrett said...

I don't hold myself up to be any "expert", it is just that I was fortunate enough to have others point me in the right direction when I started writing for publication. Now I try to do the same for others.

One of the most useful resources for resolving questions about style is the "Style manual for authors, editors and printers" produced by the Australian federal government and now published by John Wiley and Sons.

In the Sixth Edition 2002, on page 97, it reads...

"Full Stop
Also called the full point, point, period or dot, the full stop is primarily recognised as the mark that ends a sentence. It should be followed by one space only, and the first word of any following text usually begins with a capital letter."

- - - - - 06 September, 2004 18:32  

- - - - - Post a Comment

 
Learn more about AVG Internet Security real-time protection
 

 
 


 
Learn more about AVG Anti-Virus protection
 

melbourne | blogs
listed on aussie blogs
listed on Blogwise
technorati profile
BlogTree.com
 

home | about | weird mob | computing | interests | insight
Copyright © 1995-2008 Lloyd Borrett. All rights reserved.  ::  www.borrett.id.au
mob 0418 170 044  ::  tel +61 3 5996 0033  ::  fax +61 3 5904 9005  ::  email lloyd@borrett.id.au