Single Spacing, Double Spacing, and Doing It Ones Own Way

["Wright, Lynne" <lwright -at- positron911 -dot- com>]

As someone who spent a decade working as a typesetter, I can confirm that
the double space after a period convention went out of fashion when people
stopped using typewriters. Because letters were put on the page
mechanically, each character took up the same amount of horizontal space, so
a double-space was used after a period to help visually define the end of
sentences within a paragraph. 

These days, with sophisticated electronic fonts in which you can control the
kerning and word-spacing, an extra space after a period is just not
necessary or useful... which is why the convention is for single-spacing.
Plus, isn't it possible that if an automatic line break happens after the
first space, the next line will start with the second space, so the line
will be indented slightly? 

Anybody who really knows type and publication design will always advocate
the most economical and tight letter-kerning and word-spacing possible... in
other words, the modern, professional look is for tight as opposed to loose
spacing. So I'd say that for a Web page, you ought to use the modern
standard, not one that went out with the horse and buggy. 

I must say that I had a problem with your comment about following your own
judgment if the convention "seems" wrong. I get that all the time from the
writers i work with, and it drives me nuts, because when they argue against
adopting a new standard because it just doesn't "seem" right to them, what's
happening is that they are just afraid of things that aren't familiar to
them. They'd rather keep doing things the way they always have, even if its
wrong by industry standards. They are incapable of even approaching the
question of whether or not the change is for the better. I know this is
true, because they are never able to provide a credible reason why their
preference is any better than the whims of a monkey. 

My point is: conventions become conventions because the general body of
learned wisdom has determined that there is an optimal way to do something.
So why reject that? On the other hand, this issue IS really trivial... most
people don't have a discerning enough eye to even notice how much space
there is after a period.

Lynne Wright
Technical Communications
Positron Inc.
5101 Buchan St.  H4P 2R9
(514) 345-2200
fax:   345-2272



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