1 or 2 spaces after a full stop?

And thinking about it, I used to sit near the secretary pool at my old job, and I NEVER heard them double tap the space bar. It would sound ridiculous!
 
ALLI said:
Ok, if it's 2 spaces, why doesn't WORD automatically add in the extra space if you only press once?

It might be 2 in typewriting, but in word processing I'm sure it's one. It's only one in books (unless the formatting is set to justify the text as and even sided block).

It's one space. Step into the modern world! :p
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ok so why doesn't work automatically take the extra space out then, it is 2 spaces, I've always been taught that and I think it looks better, as it makes is easier to tell a comma and full stop apart if you're reading quickly.
 
Spacing after full stop

In typewritten texts and other documents printed in uniform-width fonts, there is a convention among lay writers that two spaces are placed after the full stop (along with the other sentence enders: question mark and exclamation mark), as opposed to the single space used after other punctuation symbols. This is sometimes termed "French spacing".
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Taken from Wikipedia

EDIT: Just ask my brother and sister, them along with me have done all the word processing exams going and this is indeed standard practice.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_stop

:o

Just when you thought Wikipedia couldn't possibly have every bit of information....:p

In typewritten texts and other documents printed in uniform-width fonts, there is a convention among lay writers that two spaces are placed after the full stop (along with the other sentence enders: question mark and exclamation mark), as opposed to the single space used after other punctuation symbols. This is sometimes termed "French spacing".

In modern American English typographical usage, debate has arisen around the proper number of trailing spaces after a full stop to separate sentences within a paragraph. Whereas two spaces are still regarded by many outside the publishing industry to be the better usage for monospace typefaces, the awkwardness that most keyboards and word-processing software have in representing correctly the 1.5 spaces that had previously become standard for typographically proportional (non-monospace) fonts has led to some confusion about how to render the space between sentences using only word-processing tools. Many descriptivists support the notion that a single space after a full stop should be considered standard because it has been the norm in mainstream publishing for many decades. Many prescriptivists, meanwhile, adhere to the earlier use of two spaces on typewriters to make the separation of sentences more salient than separation of elements within sentences. Some, however, accept that in modern word-processing the single space is better because two spaces may stretch inordinately when full justification is applied. Additionally, many computer typefaces are designed proportionately to alleviate the need for the double space. Most modern typesetters, designers, and desktop publishers use only one space after a period as do all mainstream publishers of books and journals.
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The fact that 2 spaces after a stop is 'French spacing' is enough to convince me that 1 space for both commas and stops is in fact the correct method.
 
Why is this still being debated?


Treefrog, i'm not one of those clowns that type everything in perfect English and correct people's typos etc. I should have expected a reponse like that from a forum like this.


I just stated the facts, ill write its instead of it's all day long, its not like nobody knows what i mean.

Using proper English online generally looks rude too. Like one of those ponces in a #math or #visualbasic IRC channel... those places are full of them
 
After years of doing it correctly, I have gone and purposely done it wrong over and over again. I know what is considered right (no double space) and what is considered wrong (double space), but after years of doing graphic design, I no longer follow that rule so closely. I have two exceptions I personally follow, and nobody has ever noticed until I point it out to them (and then they chastise me for not knowing the 'correct way'). I know that professional typesetters use 1 space, and I know that typing teachers taught 2 spaces, and I know why. In professional printing, you have what are generally well-designed typefaces with professionally tweaked kerning that shouldn't need the extra space. For the old-fashioned typewriter, however, the text was in a fixed-width typeface (kinda like Courier) that did not aid the user in his or her reading of the text. This drove the need to insert that extra space as a clue that the end of a sentence was coming (since people often see ahead of where they are reading, such cues are important).
http://www.evolt.org/article/Two_Spaces_After_a_Period_Isn_t_Dead_Yet/25/213/index.html
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This makes sense.
 
Bri said:
Way to cut out the bit of the text that corroborates your view ;)
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The next paragraph looked too long for me to bother reading lol :p.

Each to their own and all that but every word processing book going and every word processing teacher will argue that it is two spaces.
 
spacessuckwinnersdontusespacespunctuationorantyhinglikethatitallcomesoutasonebigblockoftextandeveryonecanstillworkoutwhatiwanttosay*

* You have no idea how difficult it was to type that, I had to remove all kinds of punctuation and it was difficult to not put a space after each word.
 
clv101 said:
This makes sense.
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That it does :)

I know that when I was learning typing I used to get told off for using single spaces after the full stop (no matter which teacher I had:p), and with fixed fonts the double space does make it much easier to read in my opinion, as it's immediately obvious where the sentance ends.
 
matthew_o50 said:
Taken from Wikipedia

EDIT: Just ask my brother and sister, them along with me have done all the word processing exams going and this is indeed standard practice.
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French! In that case it's definitely wrong.
 
I was taught 2 spaces as standard at college on an ICT course so thats the way I do it.

I also think it's one sandwich if you cut it in half but we won't go into that again :p
 
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