One or two spaces after a period?

[Taejin]

fuck periods! im with slipsneeky2

 

[silverpig]

S c r e w  y o u  g u y s .  I  d e c i d e d  I  w a n t  m o a r  s p a c e ,  s o  I  a m  w r i t i n g  l i k e  t h i s .  M O A R !

 

[dali71]

One space is the proper way.

http://www.slate.com/id/2281146/

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. James Felici, author of the The Complete Manual of Typography, points out that the early history of type is one of inconsistent spacing. Hundreds of years ago some typesetters would end sentences with a double space, others would use a single space, and a few renegades would use three or four spaces. Inconsistency reigned in all facets of written communication; there were few conventions regarding spelling, punctuation, character design, and ways to add emphasis to type. But as typesetting became more widespread, its practitioners began to adopt best practices. Felici writes that typesetters in Europe began to settle on a single space around the early 20th century. America followed soon after.

Every modern typographer agrees on the one-space rule. It's one of the canonical rules of the profession, in the same way that waiters know that the salad fork goes to the left of the dinner fork and fashion designers know to put men's shirt buttons on the right and women's on the left. Every major style guide—including the Modern Language Association Style Manual and the Chicago Manual of Style—prescribes a single space after a period. (The Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association, used widely in the social sciences, allows for two spaces in draft manuscripts but recommends one space in published work.) Most ordinary people would know the one-space rule, too, if it weren't for a quirk of history. In the middle of the last century, a now-outmoded technology—the manual typewriter—invaded the American workplace. To accommodate that machine's shortcomings, everyone began to type wrong. And even though we no longer use typewriters, we all still type like we do. (Also see the persistence of the dreaded Caps Lock key.)

The problem with typewriters was that they used monospaced type—that is, every character occupied an equal amount of horizontal space. This bucked a long tradition of proportional typesetting, in which skinny characters (like I or 1) were given less space than fat ones (like W or M). Monospaced type gives you text that looks "loose" and uneven; there's a lot of white space between characters and words, so it's more difficult to spot the spaces between sentences immediately. Hence the adoption of the two-space rule—on a typewriter, an extra space after a sentence makes text easier to read. Here's the thing, though: Monospaced fonts went out in the 1970s. First electric typewriters and then computers began to offer people ways to create text using proportional fonts. Today nearly every font on your PC is proportional. (Courier is the one major exception.) Because we've all switched to modern fonts, adding two spaces after a period no longer enhances readability, typographers say. It diminishes it.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Hey guys!  Guess what?  I found a way to properly incorporate the
 two spaces in all of my posts.  Now I can finally express myself in the 
manner that I always wanted!  Thanks VBulletin!  :awe:

Pity smilies no longer work

 

[Born2bwire]

fuck periods! im with slipsneeky2

I think you mean, "Fuck periods fuck speling fkcu cochent thout ad fck u al


And I also have to add a few sentences just so I can keep using my
double spaces.  Fuck yeah!

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Two spaces is inefficient and wastes paper. Seems there are still dinosaurs using the archaic two-space practice that need to die off.

 

[dighn]

Hey guys!  Guess what?  I found a way to properly incorporate the
 two spaces in all of my posts.  Now I can finally express myself in the 
manner that I always wanted!  Thanks VBulletin!  :awe:

you do realize that it looks like crap? a workaround meant for an archaic technology should not be indiscriminately applied to modern computers that are actually capable of proper sentence spacing.

 

[Born2bwire]

you do realize that it looks like crap? a workaround meant for an archaic technology should not be indiscriminately applied to modern computers that are actually capable of proper sentence spacing.

What's that?  Oh, I'm sorry.  I can't hear you over how awesome my
typography is.  And yes, I just used a preposition to end my sentence with.

EDIT:  Even better!  This seems to also ruin the horizontal formatting when 
other people quote it!!!

 

[Brigandier]

What's that?  Oh, I'm sorry.  I can't hear you over how awesome my
typography is.  And yes, I just used a preposition to end my sentence with.

EDIT:  Even better!  This seems to also ruin the horizontal formatting when other
people quote it!!!

Ending sentences with prepositions is something, up, with which I will not put!


Edit: You made me believe in ghosts with your future ninja edit!

 

[Born2bwire]

Ending sentences with prepositions is something, up, with which I will not put!


Edit: You made me believe in ghosts with your future ninja edit!

Yeah, it turns out that there is a short grace period after you
post that you can edit the post and it doesn't show up as having been
done so.  Also, two spaces for life.

 

[Brigandier]

Yeah, it turns out that there is a short grace period after you
post that you can edit the post and it doesn't show up as having been
done so.  Also, two spaces for life.

I was taught two spaces, but technology has made me obsolete.

The computer sees two spaces; says, "Do you mean one space?" I cannot get freedom, no matter how hard I pound that space bar.

I want to, jump, jump, back into what I learned!

 

[Soundmanred]

fuck periods! im with slipsneeky2

Terry is an idiot.
Don't follow examples set by idiots.

 

[dighn]

What's that?  Oh, I'm sorry.  I can't hear you over how awesome my
typography is.  And yes, I just used a preposition to end my sentence with.

EDIT:  Even better!  This seems to also ruin the horizontal formatting when 
other people quote it!!!

ahh how you struggle. one day you will realize the error of your ways, and the cleansing brilliance of the truth shall cast away from you the shadows of ignorance. it's only a matter of time.

 

[mikeymikec]

I was taught to use two spaces. I can't remember when or why, but I prefer how it looks.

It bugs me when I do a bit of HTML coding though, having to put an extra   at the start of every sentence to get the final result to do my bidding

 

[Gibsons]

hey look

 

[Fritzo]

hey look

Cmon....2 year old thread?

 

[OutHouse]

2. I was taught to use 2 and I don't see the need to switch to one.

Same.

 

[Gibsons]

Cmon....2 year old thread?

New xkcd!