Just a little more on the burning issue of "space space"

[Sue MacIntosh <sue -at- PAGES -dot- COM>]

Hi everyone,

Those of you not interested, delete this now!

One of the founders of the company I work for is Mike Parker, founder
of Bitstream, the typeface company.  You might say he knows just a
little about typography!  I told him of our "space space" discussion
and asked him what his feelings were on the subject:

He said that monospaced typefaces, such as those used in typewritten
text, require two spaces following a period for legibility.  He said
that monospaced typefaces lack a smooth rhythm that make them as
legible as proportional typefaces.


Proportional typefaces do not need two spaces following a period.
Proportional type has a rhythm that makes it more legible, and using
two spaces breaks the rhythm as well as wastes space.  If you're
fully justifying your text, you will run into even worse problems
with this extra space.  (But we don't do that anymore, do we?!)

I don't understand how many of you can say that only one space after
a period is not enough and makes the text hard to read.  You must
have had a heck of a time making it through your school text books,
not to mention virtually every other printed piece that you ever
read, such as books, newspapers, and magazines.  They ALL use only
one space after a period!


Now that we have *real* typography at our fingertips in the form of
proportional typefaces, we should follow the rules of typography, not
typewriting.  In all honesty, I type two spaces too, but I change
them to one using search and replace.

Sue

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Susan M. MacIntosh
Pages Software Inc
San Diego, CA
sue -at- pages -dot- com  (NeXTMail welcome)
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