Readers Respond: Do you use two spaces after a period?

If you learned to type on a typewriter or from a typing teacher who learned on a typewriter, chances are, you have at one time used two spaces after a period when writing web copy. In fact, I had a long discussion with a client when I first started building web pages because he wanted me to force his page copy to have two spaces after a period. Luckily for me, I was able to talk him out of it. But it took me a long time to get out of the habit of writing two spaces, even though the web page only displayed one.

What do you think? Is two spaces after a period important? Do you use one space or two in your web copy? Why or why not?

Double spacing will eventually die out

I suspect that the majority of two-space advocates are older folks who can't give up their ancient training and refuse to accept modern typographic practices. Are they also stuck on fixed-space fonts to preserve that beloved typewriter-style look? Do they still type a small "L" for "1"? Would they use THREE spaces if that was what they were taught? Surely, most present-day teachers understand modern trends and refuse to cling to outmoded practices. Cheers to programs that enforce single spacing! Don't worry; twenty years from now, this two-space absurdity will no longer exist. People will wonder, "What were they thinking?"

—Guest JP

Professional print never used two spaces

It doesn't matter what your typewriter teacher told you. The fact is, practically everything that you've ever read through your entire life (even if you were born before the Titanic sailed) that was professionally printed has a single space after the period. As an old print pro pointed out a few comments back, double-spacing was NEVER done in professional printing. And as a professional magazine editor and writer, senior university lecturer in publishing, ex-printer, and typographer, I can say with equal certainty that double-spacing is not and never has been acceptable outside monospace font typewriting. It is not a matter of youngsters and oldsters, it is a matter of proper use of proportional type.

—Guest Keith Martin

Visual space

One space after punctuation and TWO spaces after a full stop makes large blocks of text much, much more readable. End of discussion. Never mind "modern" vs "old-fashioned". If you are writing words, you want/need people to read them. If they are uncomfortable to read, they'll remain unread. The same, incidently goes for type style and size and for colour. I'm so fed-up with magazines that print white text over a photo background. Probably looked great on screen but by the time it went to the printers - unreadable!

—Guest Ann

It's an em space, not a second space.

There's been extra space after a period since God invented typesetting. It was an em space. That em space was reflected in the second space on a typewriter. A typewriter is a technology that no longer relevant to typesetting, if it ever was. Yes, there should be more space after a period. As for white-space rivers, few web paragraphs are long enough to make it an issue.

—Guest Think typesetting, not typewriters

The reasons listed here are ridiculous

“Does anyone still use two spaces after a period?” Yes, I do. The reasoning in use here is absolutely ridiculous. People are trying to say that a proportionally spaced period followed by one space provides the same readability as a mono spaced period followed by two spaces. What planet do these people live on? A mono spaced period followed by one space provides MORE readability than the proportionally spaced period followed by one space so how could the two space version be LESS readable? Graphic artists should stick to art, which paragraphs are not. I don’t care how the paragraph looks from a distance, I care how it flows when I read it. Why would we change the rules for readability based on something that has nothing to do with readability? This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

—Paul

I learned 2 spaces

I learned 2 spaces when learning to type also. When I started doing manual for my company I learned the one space after a period. It did take some getting used to but now it is such a habit that I do it with everything.

—Donna Stadter

@James

While I do agree that I wasn’t sure who Karen wanted to move on, I didn’t read anything about her suggesting that older adults should “move on into death”. That seems like a deliberately provocative misinterpretation of what she wrote.

—webdesign

@Karen

Are you saying it is time for the undereducated and less knowledgeable kiddies to move on into a broader knowledgebase and a greater understanding of the world around them; or are you saying we older adults should move on into death and leave the world poorer without the benefit of our knowledge, expertise, and contributions?

—Guest James Capers

Time to move on

I too was trained to type on a manual then electric typewriter – Olivettis were a favourite at school, and the two spaces was definitely a convention/std. These days, definitely not, and I do remember it being brought up in the office recently and most of the under 30 year olds who work here having no clue. Time to move on!

—Guest Karen

Fine wine or soda pop?

This may be a little off topic, but I keep an old Royal typewriter in my office. One day I was taking a group of highschoolers on a tour through our department and on a whim began explaining where a lot of the terms they are familiar with originated. They thought it was pretty cool, especially the carriage return. But the best part was when I dinged the bell. Every one of their eyes brightened when they heard it. FYI, I’m old school. It’s been two spaces a LOT longer than it’s been one space. It looks cleaner and is more elegant. It’s the difference between a finely aged wine and a soda. :O)

—Guest Walter Marrs

I'll stick with what my readers want

I grew up with the two spaces after the end of sentences before most of you were conceived. When reading–especially aloud for an audience, which I did as a rip-and-read radio newscaster–the double spaces were a very helpful visual that helped with producing the proper emphases and tonalities for audial communication. Academia has since purged the second space from my writing. I suppose that if I find a portion of my Web audience prefers and feels strongly about the double spaces, I will make sure to include them unless it offends another large portion of my audience. Flaunting my arrogance in my visitors’ faces drives them away and pleasing them brings them back. Thus, I opt to please and retain my visitors.

—Guest James Capers

Double spaces is for "girls" ;-)

I’m an old-timer, but from the printing trade. 99% of the time we did “not” use mono-spaced fonts, unless we were attempting to replicate a typewritten letter. Never, never did we use double spaces after periods, colons, semi’s or any other punctuation. That was for girls, just kidding Jennifer. But, it was true in the hot metal days (pre-computers), the ladies did the typing in the offices and the guys typed or set type for hot metal printing.

—Guest Ben

Time to move on

I don’t ensure my web sites work in IE4 or Mosaic anymore, even though I see those user agents show up in my logs. Likewise, I also don’t adhere to ancient and since abandoned copywriting style guides that cause more work and (arguably, I know) less screen legibility. Regardless of whether it’s a stylistic “nod” to the “oldtimers” or not. Time to move on.

—Guest Chris

Change is measured in pain

The reason for using two spaces, to me, is a function of knowing and acknowledging people that learned the old rule, but may never have run against the change or anything that clearly explained that the rule change, and why. The formal change of the two-space rule is documented among professionals. I am not convinced that much of the general reading public is aware that the change is intentional – or why. For those that “grew up” knowing the two space rule – how many people have been distracted because the single space rule is less readable – according to the rule they learned – and impinges on being able to communicate with, ahem, visitors with “earlier experience”, shall we say? If your target audience learned to read since 1995 I would imagine you can assume they have seen both rules in use, and are comfortable with single spaces after the dot. It might be presumptuous, and make you look ignorant, to some of your audience that learned to read before 1985.

—Guest Brad K

I add NBSP to get 2 spaces

Yes, I still use 2 spaces. I always use some extra NBSP to get the effect. I learned to do this in typing class and still prefer the visual break, even in proportional fonts. I also try to make use of M-dash and N-dash to get different looks. I get amused over how much web-designers will kill to get rounded corners and let the text go willy-nilly. They’ll except badly wrapped text as long as they get gradients and drop shadows.

—Guest Dwight Blubaugh