One space or two?
On a recent blog posting I made on Mac Mojo, a commenter railed on my use of two spaces after a period. This one took me by surprise – I'd never see so much passion about the number of spaces after a period before. I am definitely an old school typist - while I didn't learn on a typewriter (or DOS, for that matter), I learned on a Commodore PET in 1980, then I did a ton of Unix and MVS work in the mid to late 80's. Then I discovered DOS Land in 1989, Windows Land in 1991 (where yes, there were proportional fonts), Web Land in 1998, and finally I discovered Mac Land in 2000. Up until today, no matter what Land I was in, two spaces after a period is just what I typed. Publishing content in Web Land made them go away, of course - put as many as you want, it doesn't matter. That never bothered me much - I never thought to care one way or the other. But my thumb hits two spaces as part of my hard wiring – I'm typing this entry right now trying to put only one space after the period, and it is hard to fight my thumbs.
Personally, I like the extra spacing between sentences – it improves readability for me. I tend to consume things in chunks when I read, and so more spacing helps - much like a paragraph break improves readability, too. So off I went to the World Wide Web to discover what all the hub-bub was about.
Apparently, my thumbs liking to hit space twice after a period brings me dead in the middle of a controversy: this archived discussion on Wikipedia is similar to a bunch of other debates I saw. This spawned more curiosity - of all the things for people to flog each other about, two spaces vs. one after a sentence didn't strike me as a top priority for flogging.
I did a little more digging, and it looks like I'm going to have to reprogram my thumbs:
- About.com cuts people like me a little slack, summarizing with "Professional typesetters, designers, and desktop publishers should use one space only. Save the double spaces for typewriting, email, term papers, or personal correspondence. For everyone else, do whatever makes you feel good." I wasn't so sure about the whole "if it feels good, do it" motto, so I kept searching.
- The Chicago Manual of Style says "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." However, in the Q&A, they do cut the two space folks a little slack, but not much.
- The AP Stylebook Ask the Editor section, when searched for the word "space", will reveal that "AP uses a single space after a period at the end of a sentence."
So there you have it - one space, not two, if you are publishing something professionally. Apparently, in personal writings using two spaces is somewhat kinda sorta okay - but you'll get frowned at for doing it.
Comments
I believe that guy (who's made the same comment in the team blog a couple of times) is referring to this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Mac-Not-Typewriter-Second/dp/0201782634
We got into a conversation down here in SVC about it today, and it turns out that there are quite a number of people who feel strongly about this topic (largely based on this book, it seems).
Posted by: Nadyne Mielke | July 16, 2007 6:45 PM
It's interesting, I got in the exact same discussion with a bunch of people a very short while ago. Someone then mentioned that some apps have special spaces they use after a period. They claimed that even Word had a different spacing for regular spaces and spaces after a period, making the double-space obsolete.
I haven't taken the time to check yet though, but you, of all people, should know: is the space after a period a regular space or a wider space in Word??
Posted by: Corentin Cras-Méneur | July 16, 2007 7:29 PM
I was pretty sure we didn’t space any differently after a period, but then paranoia got the best of me, so I turned to the ultimate authority – our Mac Word program manager. He assured me that yes, it was true, the spacing after a period is the same spacing as everywhere else. So there you go!
Posted by: Craig Eisler | July 16, 2007 9:42 PM
i learned to use two spaces a billion years ago in 9th grade typing class, and i am too old the change. my software can darn well correct for my habits, that is what software is for.
Posted by: john | July 16, 2007 11:09 PM
I read your MacMojo blogs Craig and this morning I was a little surprised to see how 'heated' that comment was!
It made me think but like you it is hard-wired into me. My word processing days taught me to always have 2 spaces after a full stop (or your period) and a gap between 2 paragraphs!
To be honest I type how I was taught and couldn't give a monkeys what others think... They obviously have too much time on their hands!
Posted by: SteveB_UK | July 16, 2007 11:31 PM
Bah, I say use THREE spaces after a sentence, because while there is a right and a wrong way about this, getting all frothy is just...
Wait, it's TEH INTARWEB
Even *religion* can't start stupid religious wars like TEH INTARWEB.
four spaces then. and all dipthongs must be spelled out. With any luck, they'll implode in a cloud of whine and suck, and we shan't deal with them again.
Posted by: John C. Welch | July 17, 2007 7:14 AM
Thanks a lot for checking it out Craig :-)
Posted by: Corentin Cras-Méneur | July 17, 2007 8:16 AM
This only goes to show that space is indeed the final frontier.
Posted by: Paulsc | July 17, 2007 9:23 AM
36 years old. I was taught to double space! I even remember getting red marked for not doing a few times.
It's a pity some blogging software removes the double spaces when you publish.
Posted by: JohnJohn | July 24, 2007 8:10 PM
Two spaces after periods helps readers identify sentences in dense writing vs the single space after commas. I think the common practice in professional typesetting and now in word processors to "justify" the print to keep even margins left and right ruins the double space effect. Even so, I continue the practice since I was taught to type in that manner.
Posted by: equals42 | September 7, 2007 2:42 PM
I am 47 years old. When I went to school in the 70's you would get points taken off if you did not leave 2 spaces after a period or colon. It just makes sense. A full sentence is not the same as a word. It should have two spaces. I am shocked to find out that this is even questioned. When and who decided this is improper and should be fround upon? Are we lazy or something that we cannot hit the space bar a second time? More to the point, it appears to me that it is you young'uns that have decided to change things for your convenience. Who are you to look down on my generation in such a disrepectful way? To tell me I am unprofessional if I use two spaces? Give respect to your elders. You go ahead and use your one space and I will use my two spaces. But don't you tell me I am unprofessional or improper for doing it. I am a well established scientist and I develop test systems to detect plant viruses. Don't tell me I am not professional.
Posted by: Walter Bliss | September 10, 2007 9:17 PM