Single spacing, double spacing, and doing It ones own way?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

Steven Oppenheimer probably wondered what I was smoking when I 
responded to his query earlier this evening: he was asking about 
"single spacing between sentences, not double-spacing", which I misread 
as "line spacing" and proceeded to go off on a wild tangent to the 
original question. <blush> Alas, wasn't smoking anything, so I have to 
blame fatigue and the occasional desire to lecture.

Thanks to those who kindly pointed out my error privately. D'oh! Okay, 
once more unto the breach!

<<But to my eye, double-spacing looks better -- it helps each sentence 
stand out more clearly -- and my philosophy has always been to follow 
my judgement if/when the conventions seem flawed.>>

I doubt most people will ever notice the difference in ragged-right 
text, but if you're setting text with full justification, the extra 
space can create distracting rivers or make those that are already 
present more noticeable. Not necessarily a major problem, but still one 
worth paying attention to.

But if you can't demonstrate a clear advantage to your audience, 
changing something they're familiar with serves little purpose. Worse, 
if it draws attention to itself, it defeats the purpose of good 
typography: supporting reading, not drawing attention to itself. (That 
statement, of course, doesn't apply to ornamental type, whose purpose 
is indeed to draw attention, sometimes at the expense of legibility.)

--Geoff Hart   ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)


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