Do you use one or two spaces after a period?

[LogGrad98]

We need a poll.

 

[Jazz Spazz]

We need a poll.

You do the poll so we are sure to have a cheese option in there.

 

[colton]

Here is a little test. First is courier with double spaces after periods. Even for a sentence fragment. And another.

Here is the next part. Courier with one space after the period. Also here. And here. Looks kind of squished

Now for times. First with 2 spaces. It looks ok here because, well, the editing font all looks the same. Maybe it will be different.

Now times with single spaces. It is weird to type a single space. I learned to type with double spaces after every period. It isn't easy to adjust.

Let's try arial. So far so good. Smaller sentences this time. Double space to start with of course. Not sure if it matters really.

Ok now single spaces. Again it feels weird to type only one. I would have to practice to change it. Not sure if it is worth the effort.

Err... the board software automatically strips off extra spaces, so all of those single vs double spaces look identical to us.

Edit: the uploaded image displayed things nicely, though.

 

[One Brow]

I think the typographers were wrong. The extra sapce was unnecessary in Courier, but made the text much more readable in Times and Arial, to me. I'm going to stick with two.

 

[Agoxlea]

The author of the slate article was on Fresh Air on NPR yesterday. You can find it on itunes I think.

 

[LogGrad98]

I liked this part of the article:

This readability argument is debatable. Typographers can point to no studies or any other evidence proving that single spaces improve readability. When you press them on it, they tend to cite their aesthetic sensibilities. As Jury says, "It's so bloody ugly."

But I actually think aesthetics are the best argument in favor of one space over two. One space is simpler, cleaner, and more visually pleasing (it also requires less work, which isn't nothing). A page of text with two spaces between every sentence looks riddled with holes; a page of text with an ordinary space looks just as it should.

Is this arbitrary? Sure it is.

 

[colton]

The expert is correct. The two space rule was because of fixed-width fonts. If you are using Courier, then by all means use two spaces. But if you use proportional-width fonts such as Times and Arial, then you should use one space.

Look, I didn't want to have to do this, but...

https://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/01/space_invaders.html
https://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/spaces-period-end-of-sentence.aspx
https://desktoppub.about.com/cs/typespacing/a/onetwospaces.htm
https://www.penmachine.com/2011/01/stop-typing-2-spaces-after-period
https://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2011/01/its_one_space_after_a_period_not_two.html
https://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/The_rule_stands_One_space_after_a_period_Period_9587.aspx
https://www.rednovalabs.com/generation-gap-one-space-or-two-after-a-period/

The Chicago Manual of Style says it not once, but three times:

A period marks the end of a declarative or an imperative sentence. It is followed by a single space.

A single character space, not two spaces, should be left after periods at the ends of sentences (both in manuscript and in final, published form).

In typeset matter, one space, not two (in other words, a regular word space), follows any mark of punctuation that ends a sentence, whether a period, a colon, a question mark, an exclamation point, or closing quotation marks.

(And if you read those various links, you will see I was also correct about the two spaces being used historically because of old fixed-width fonts.)

/thread