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Subject:Re: Spacing after a period... From:"Alan P. Hayes" <shgraphic -at- BERKSHIRE -dot- NET> Date:Wed, 2 Jul 1997 12:53:42 -0400
Speaking as a typesetter and diligent student of typography, the late 20th
century standard for typography in English would be almost overwhelmingly
in favor of one space after a period. The two space convention is basically
an outgrowth of Victorian typesetting practice which in general is
considered so bad that most typographers seem reluctant to even talk about
it. The typewriter had its origins in this milieu. Due to technical
limitations which required that all characters occupy the same amount of
horizontal space, regardless of their width and the resulting internally
ragged line, extra space after periods even made some optical sense in that
context.
Since that time typographic practice has returned to older standards and
typographers and book designers put a lot of importance on producing even,
compact pages with solidly set lines. It makes sense, if you consider that
we read across the page line by line, that the process would be facilitated
if the lines themselves are continuous and clearly separated from each
other.
I admit to finding the great wide Victorian spaces at the end of sentences
rather charming in their context. I have a little leatherbound copy of
Pride and Prejudice from the turn of the century that just wouldn't be the
same without them.
But as a typesetter, one of the first things that I do with a document
produced by someone else is globally strip all multiple spaces from it. If
I want extra space somewhere, I have better, more controllable ways of
getting it.
Two small comments on other aspects of the thread. There are inits that
block double spacing on the Mac. QuoteInit is one that comes to mind,
available from InfoMac, I believe. Secondly, that was no mere subordinate,
that was Archie Goodwin!
Alan P. Hayes
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