Single or Double Space After A Period

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by firebug

Highly recommended: http://practicaltypography.com/

See, I disagree with what they are saying though. They compare 2 paragraphs, one with double spacing and one without and then say that the one with double spacing has too much white space. Personally to me, the one without looks more like a wall of text and is less readable.

With the double spacing, you can easily recognize where sentences begin and end, which could come in handy when doing mark-ups and edits.

[You Need a Thneed]

I'm 35, and I literally never heard about single spacing after a period until earlier this year. I've been using computers regularly in my life for over 30 years.

Everywhere I've been, I've always been taught to double space after a period.

[Hack&Lube]

I'm in my early 30's. English is my first language. I was educated here and have technical and liberal arts degrees. I've never heard of this before. I didn't know double-spacing was a thing. I have singled spaced my entire life. Reading this forum, I see all the posts as single spaced. On mobile devices with autofill, when you press period, it automatically places one space so you can continue typing/swiping.

Is double-spacing a thing that was only taught to certain generations? I have literally never heard of this before from learning to type in elementary school up to learning different manuals of style for formal writing in higher education.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

I'm 35, and I literally never heard about single spacing after a period until earlier this year. I've been using computers regularly in my life for over 30 years.

Everywhere I've been, I've always been taught to double space after a period.

You've always been taught to double space because the people teaching you almost certainly learned how to type on a typewriter where two spaces after a period is considered proper. Your teachers are passing on outdated rules that don't apply to computers with proportionally-spaced fonts.

Unless you're using a typewriter (or a monospaced font like Courier), leaving only one space after a period is correct. This convention was settled years ago and isn't up for debate or interpretation.

[Hack&Lube]

I'll be damned, I just quoted a few posts in this thread to see if there were indeed two spaces after your periods and there were.

It looks like you are wasting your efforts. The forum code condenses it to a single space. That's why I never noticed it before. Try quoting one of the above posts by V or You Need a Thneed. You can see that when you edit the text, there are double spaces but when you are reading those same posts in the forum you can only highlight one space. I just copied the You Need a Thneed post straight into a text editor. There is only one space unless you try to quote or edit the post.

[MarchHare]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Is double-spacing a thing that was only taught to certain generations? I have literally never heard of this before from learning to type in elementary school up to learning different manuals of style for formal writing in higher education.

As I posted above, double-spacing after a sentence was at one time (back when people used typewriters rather than word processors) considered proper style. If you ever encounter someone who still double-spaces now, they either learned how to type on a typewriter themselves or were incorrectly taught by someone who did.

[V]

My grade 8 typing class was half on typewriter, half on computer because we didn't have enough computers for the whole class.

The only time I can remember completing a paper with a single space is when I was writing a paper for my MBA earlier this year. The page limit was 9, and I was just over the limit. I changed everything to single spaced and saved just enough room to get it into the 9th page.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

It looks like you are wasting your efforts. The forum code condenses it to a single space.

It's browsers that render it this way. All white space gets mushed down to a single space. (getbak mentioned it a couple of times)

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by V

The only time I can remember completing a paper with a single space is when I was writing a paper for my MBA earlier this year. The page limit was 9, and I was just over the limit. I changed everything to single spaced and saved just enough room to get it into the 9th page.

You mean I could have double spaced after periods in every single paper I wrote in University? DAMNIT!!!!!

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by photon

It's browsers that render it this way. All white space gets mushed down to a single space. (getbak mentioned it a couple of times)

Darn, I am sufferring from carpal tunnel symdrom for nothing now.

[Chill Cosby]

Originally Posted by V

I double space after my sentences. I'm also very happy that when I text I just double space after I'm done a sentence and it creates a period for me! Perfect!

It creates a period and a single space. What do you do then? Hit space a third time?

You're a monster!

[Traditional_Ale]

I thought that even if you double-space after a period the computer automatically corrects it?

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Traditional_Ale

I thought that even if you double-space after a period the computer automatically corrects it?

Depends on the software.

[Coach]

I've never heard of this. Always been single space, as Microsoft Word tells me.

[Frequitude]

Don't care what's "correct". Double space is easier to read. Go double.

[Party Elephant]

When I saw how long this thread was, I clicked on it hoping it had gone off the rails. Nope, just 6 pages of legitimate discussion with the odd posts per page snob to make fun of me for saying 6 pages just now.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

I'll be damned, I just quoted a few posts in this thread to see if there were indeed two spaces after your periods and there were.

It looks like you are wasting your efforts. The forum code condenses it to a single space. That's why I never noticed it before. Try quoting one of the above posts by V or You Need a Thneed. You can see that when you edit the text, there are double spaces but when you are reading those same posts in the forum you can only highlight one space. I just copied the You Need a Thneed post straight into a text editor. There is only one space unless you try to quote or edit the post.

I wasn't even thinking about it when i typed. (Until now). It's ingrained in my brain.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by photon

It's browsers that render it this way. All white space gets mushed down to a single space. (getbak mentioned it a couple of times)

It is actually part of the HTML spec. (apparently because the HTML spec was inherited and the original spec had it - so it is a legacy from when memory was expensive)

CSS spec 2.1 added an element to allow for multiple whitespaces.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by simmonjam1

Now we'll have single-space nazis on here to go with the grammar nazis.

Kudos for the proper use of the hyphen.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

CSS spec 2.1 added an element to allow for multiple whitespaces.

Neat I didn't know that. CSS seems full of all kinds of stuff that probably most people never even use.