Typophile

teaching one space between sentences

sullivanj0 votes

Fellow type enthusiasts,

I would like to submit the following short article which I wrote to explain the difference between monospaced fonts and proportional fonts, and why the latter requires only one space between the end of one sentence after the period, and the start of the next.

My intent is to convince the double-spacers in my office that there is a real reason why they should convert. I have attempted to provide a historically accurate explanation, written as concisely as possible. I would appreciate any comments, including assurances that my facts are historically accurate.

There is more that could be said on this topic, but brevity is extremely important here.

Thanks in advance for your advice on this topic which continues to confuse people to this day!
John Sullivan

Plain text icon SpacingSentences.txt
J. Tillman0 votes

"even those of us who still cling to..."
I would delete "of us". It sounds like you're trying too hard to be a part of the group. Plus you already use "we" later in the same sentence.

"and before the one space that follows."
This is unclear; I might know what you mean, but I would just delete this. It's too confusing.

"beyond saving"
This joke is going to fall flat, at best, with your target audience.

"our fonts for us, we only need..."
I would delete "for us". You are already using "our" and "we" in the same short phrase.

Really, what you need are references to 10 or 15 or 20 authoritative sources (books or web) that make it clear that two spaces is a thing of the past. Start here:

Matthew Butterick's Practical Typography
http://practicaltypography.com/
http://practicaltypography.com/one-space-between-sentences.html

sullivanj0 votes

Thank you for your insightful comments, J.
I appreciate your time and expertise very much.

John S.

Thomas Phinney0 votes

Wow. Butterick’s explanation is awesome. Thanks to Tillman for sharing it. It provides lots of other references, too.

I will just add one more example: Web browsers automatically suppress multiple spaces at the end of a sentence, and turn them into a single space when they display the text. They are not icons of high-end typography, but this one thing they do.

Captured from web.archive.org on 12 Sep 2017. view this capture