Is this wrong? (Grammar)

Irish_Tom · 14 Jan 2013 at 10:09

[FnG]magnolia;23554730 said:
Why do you do this?

It's poor typography. Contrary to what some people have stated, it hinders rather than helps legibility, unless you're using a mono (single-width) font.

It's also ugly on a nicely laid-out page.

estebanrey said:
Bit like you feeling you need to remove them

How so?

ubersonic · 14 Jan 2013 at 10:09

Irish_Tom said:
As a graphic designer, when using supplied copy, the first thing I do is a find-and-replace for double-spaces.

Beerguzzler · 14 Jan 2013 at 10:20

I always double space since I was taught it in college and I think it looks better.

[FnG]magnolia · 14 Jan 2013 at 10:26

ubersonic said:

That picture always cracks me up. It's childish and stupid but god damn if it doesn't always make me laugh out loud

estebanrey · 14 Jan 2013 at 10:35

Irish_Tom said:
It's poor typography.

In your opinion. A quick peruse of Wikipedia suggests there is a debate over whether it’s better to use one space, two or whether it matters at all.

Whilst Microsoft aren't the authority on grammar, the fact their grammar check neither highlights a single or double space after a full stop as a grammatical error suggests to me both are acceptable, or at least neither are categorically 'wrong'.

Irish_Tom said:
Contrary to what some people have stated, it hinders rather than helps legibility, unless you're using a mono (single-width) font.

How the hell does it hinder legibility? If that were true then every new paragraph would massively hinder legibility as that is the biggest gap between characters you can have.

Besides, the making redundant of the double space came after the typewriter but before the explosion of things like the Blackberry mobile phone which has a small screen with a low resolution (compared to a monitor). You try spotting the difference between a comma and a full stop on a screen like that with a font like Times New Roman at 9 points.

Irish_Tom said:
It's also ugly on a nicely laid-out page.

Another subjective claim and another I disagree with. I don’t see how the additional space is making such a massive aesthetic change to the text in your head. It really doesn’t alter it THAT much.

Justify alignment however, now that does look ugly.

estebanrey · 14 Jan 2013 at 10:37

This thread has only just made me notice that the OCUK forum software strips out double spacing automatically on posting.

Look Here. I physically only typed one space
Look Here. I physically typed two spaces

Freefaller · 14 Jan 2013 at 11:03

It's how I do it on CVs and covering letters or official documents at work. It's a force of habit having been taught it when word processing many moon ago.

Irish_Tom · 14 Jan 2013 at 11:11

estebanrey said:
snip

It's not 'just' my opinion, and it's not particularly subjective. You can disagree all you want.

Modern typography, both in print and online, deems the double space following a full stop redundant.

It's not just designers, we have professional copywriters and proof-checkers who would deem a double-space an error to be corrected.

I'd be surprised if there were many (any) design agencies that insisted on double spaces after a full stop.

Freefaller · 14 Jan 2013 at 11:17

No. It is entirely subjective. There are no "rules". If you want to use block spacing, or left adjusted, double spaced full stops, or anything you can. If you're pretentious enough for it to be an issue for you, you have too much time on your hands

:(Rhodri:) · 14 Jan 2013 at 11:18

estebanrey said:
How the hell does it hinder legibility? If that were true then every new paragraph would massively hinder legibility as that is the biggest gap between characters you can have.

It's more the fact you can get a fractured look to your text which you don't get with single spaced text in my opinion. Double spacing feels redundant when not using mono-spaced texts.

Irish_Tom · 14 Jan 2013 at 11:22

Freefaller said:
No. It is entirely subjective. There are no "rules". If you want to use block spacing, or left adjusted, double spaced full stops, or anything you can. If you're pretentious enough for it to be an issue for you, you have too much time on your hands

No.

It's my job to make sure the work I produce is typographically correct.

It impacts on me, the company I work for and our clients.

megakid · 14 Jan 2013 at 11:30

I've always done double spaces.

Freefaller · 14 Jan 2013 at 11:47

Irish_Tom said:
No.

It's my job to make sure the work I produce is typographically correct.

It impacts on me, the company I work for and our clients.

Sure. You do what YOU need to do, to make it right for YOUR clients. That's fine.

However, just because that is what your client base is after, does not necessarily make it correct for the rest of us.

Theophany · 14 Jan 2013 at 11:49

This is the most disturbingly aggressive debate on a total non-issue I've seen in a while.

XeNoN89 · 14 Jan 2013 at 11:52

I've always used one space, but I taught myself to type so never knew any better.

Eriedor · 14 Jan 2013 at 11:53

estebanrey said:
This thread has only just made me notice that the OCUK forum software strips out double spacing automatically on posting.

Look Here. I physically only typed one space
Look Here. I physically typed two spaces

Then surely you will agree that double spacing is superfluous if you don't even recognise when it's not in use.

(p.s. as mentioned earlier it's due to the browser ignoring extra white space during parsing)

Craig R · 14 Jan 2013 at 11:56

I was taught one space after comma, two after a full-stop. However I never do this.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/d...two-spaces-after-a-full-stop-is-wrong-period/

Irish_Tom · 14 Jan 2013 at 11:56

Freefaller said:
Sure. You do what YOU need to do, to make it right for YOUR clients. That's fine.

However, just because that is what your client base is after, does not necessarily make it correct for the rest of us.

If you're just writing an email or a word document put as many spaces in as you like.

But from a professional design/typographic point of view (which I what I was expressing in my original post) there is no need for a double space.

ubersonic · 14 Jan 2013 at 12:07

Irish_Tom said:
It's not 'just' my opinion, and it's not particularly subjective.

Yes it is, and as a graphic designer your really the last person who should be going against the grain as it was your industry that helped pioneer the double space as it makes printed/onscreen text look better/easier to read.

Tripnologist · 14 Jan 2013 at 12:08

Irish_Tom said:
But from a professional design/typographic point of view (which I what I was expressing in my original post) there is no need for a double space.

I'm with you on this one.

I also find it funny that some people who are so deadset that double is correct, have only just noticed that double spaces don't work on the Internet (unless you put in the non breaking space entity).