Space Invaders: Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period.

Slate ^ | January 13, 2011 | Farhad Manjoo

[Yardstick]

Can I let you in on a secret? Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong.

And yet people who use two spaces are everywhere, their ugly error crossing every social boundary of class, education, and taste.[snip]

What galls me about two-spacers isn't just their numbers. It's their certainty that they're right. Over Thanksgiving dinner last year, I asked people what they considered to be the "correct" number of spaces between sentences. The diners included doctors, computer programmers, and other highly accomplished professionals. Everyone—everyone!—said it was proper to use two spaces. Some people admitted to slipping sometimes and using a single space—but when writing something formal, they were always careful to use two. Others explained they mostly used a single space but felt guilty for violating the two-space "rule." Still others said they used two spaces all the time, and they were thrilled to be so proper. When I pointed out that they were doing it wrong—that, in fact, the correct way to end a sentence is with a period followed by a single, proud, beautiful space—the table balked. "Who says two spaces is wrong?" they wanted to know.

Typographers, that's who. The people who study and design the typewritten word decided long ago that we should use one space, not two, between sentences. That convention was not arrived at casually.[snip]

[Yardstick]

Today I received an email from my uncle, who is a one spacer, and was comparing it to my email to him which was two spaced. There simply was no doubt that his email looked better on the page. So I googled around to see which is correct and found this very interesting and persuasive article. I had no idea of the history of one versus two spaces. I was taught to use two and never thought much about it until now. They say you're pretty much set in your ways after about age twenty five, but I think I'm going to make a change--a seriesly hugh change--and become a one spacer. BTW, I just noticed that the FR software seems to reduce two spaces to one automatically.

[Travis McGee]

I'm currently formatting and finalizing my 4th novel, Castigo Cay.

And I think two spaces are better than one, by far.

One spacing is laziness in the computer age. It removes a step for the automatic programs.

[Huck]

I’m pretty sure I’ve always been a one-spacer. Yup. One space. I don’t think I ever considered a second space.

[Sloth]

I’ve read this article before and I completely disagree.

[balch3]

I was taught to use two space in my high school typing class years ago. I’ve tried using one space, but it just feels wrong.

[Christian Engineer Mass]

It's not the FR software, it's HTML. Two spaces will remain in the code on the page, but two spaces are automatically parsed to one by any browser, unless you put <PRE> tags around your text, like this:

I can type    with as many    spaces as I want Now.  New sentence.

[DennisR]

Two spaces is better. That is what I was taught in my tenth-grade typing class in the olden days (1967). It seems to make it much easier to determine where the end of a sentence is. I will be sticking with two spaces, regardless of what salon.com suggests. In fact, salon.com arguing against it make me even more determined to go with two! :)

[Dustoff45]

I was taught to use two spaces in a College English class after my essay was graded down for poor punctuation.

I have used double spaces ever since.

[gorush]

This is the first time I have ever heard of the two space concept, wrong as it obviously is. :{)

[marktwain]

Yes, I am a two space man myself.

[pnh102]

I’ll stop using that second space when you take it out of my cold, dead, hands.

[NWFLConservative]

In 5th grade typing class, back in 1968, we were always taught to use two spaces after a period.

[RegulatorCountry]

I’m in graphics. Personal communications, typewritten memos and such rely more on visual clarity and ease of reading than visual beauty. A serif font and two spaces after a period is the norm with this.

Marketing materials are a different matter. Style and beauty rise in priority, and one space is the norm. That’s the way professional fonts are intended to be used, and to do otherwise creates “white rivers” running visually down every block of copy, which is very ugly and distracting.

Then, there are those hybrid areas, such as catalogs and websites, that are intended to sell right off the page. Style matters, but ease of reading does also. In these, you often run into both, with visual beauty followed in areas remotely resembling ad copy, and more monotype with two spaces in functional copy.

[television is just wrong]

I was always instructed from jr high school on to always use two spaces after periods, question marks, exclamation marks, colons, and semi colons. one space after comas and all other punctuation.

[FreedomPoster]

Sorry Matt, you’re wrong on this one.

Two spaces is a legacy of the mono-spaced typefaces of the typewriter and early computer age. It made sense when everything was Courier. With variable spacing the default condition for close to two decades now, one space after a period is what everyone should be using. The software takes care of appropriate spacing, and the extra space can throw it off.

[Never on my watch]

I'm a two spacer. Right or wrong. I ain't changin’. Of all the things I gotta fix in my life, this is never gonna come near da top. Someone dundint like it, F’m... Yeah a gotta stop cussin’ too.

[gwilhelm56]

**I’ve read this article before and I completely disagree.**

Some of us remember the “Typewriter”, the antique version of the keyboard. A One spacer after the period would cause the paper to tear or the ink would bleed together, leaving nospaces. Having in school learned “typewriting”, instead of “keyboarding”, the standard was Two Spaces.

One spacers only came about during the Dark Days of DOS, when there was no extra memory space for that “second space.” I still use it, always will!!

[Da Coyote]

Wow, Slate is really stretching their intellect on this one. The liberal mind cannot take anything more technical.

[SkyDancer]

Since the current grammar situation has been taught and learned it’s good to see “spacing between sentences” being finally addressed. /sarc

[Ole Okie]

I really couldn’t care less.

BUT.....back in the dark ages in high school, I took two years of typing. It was one of the best investments of class time I made. It was gospel that sentences ended with a period followed by two spaces.

Since then, I’ve typed extensively on Royals, Underwoods, IBM Executives, and Microsoft and Logitech keyboards for almost 70 years. My thumb ain’t gonna be trained to do anything but hit the space bar twice after a period.