Is this wrong? (Grammar)

Irish_Tom said:
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.
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Sure - but that's a different issue surely? :)

For most people writing a report/dissertation/letter writing/doing basic word processing then that rule is surely fine no? :)

The world isn't black and white amigo. :)
 
The only times double spaces are acceptable IMO is when using a monospaced type, which is not often or when specifically declared in a style guide, which is also not often.
 
ubersonic said:
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.
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Except I'm not going against the grain within the industry at all – like I said, it's standard practice to single space.

I said it wasn't subjective because there are clear typographic rules which *should* be adhered to – widows and orphans, leading and tracking, and spacing are all pretty basic typographic principles.

Freefaller said:
Sure - but that's a different issue surely? :)

For most people writing a report/dissertation/doing basic word processing then that rule is surely fine no?
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Well that depends. I try and apply typographic rules to everything I write, even the Christmas cards I wrote in December (in that I'll agree I have too much time on my hands. :p)
 
When taught to write at a young age, we were told to use a "finger space" between words and two "finger spaces" between sentences. When I was beginning to use a PC for word processing, I was told to use 2 spaces after a full-stop - it seemed logical.

Somewhere, over the years, I've sub-consciously stopped doing a double-space - possibly as I've got older and more economical with my typing (whilst still trying to ensure that my sentences and words are properly formed - it's more work for me to think about how to turn something into text speak than just to it out properly), maybe it's with the limited characters of text messaging, removing the superfluous space between sentences was a good way to remove characters without affecting the readability of the message, maybe it's something else.

Either way - I've not been doing a double-space between sentences for quite a while, but I can't put my finger onto why - but I know that I definitely did used to do it, but now don't!

Maybe it's because most of my typing is in the HTML world, where additional whitespace between words is removed at the rendering stage?
 
I've only recently trained myself out of the double space habit - it was quite hard. My mum who was a trained manual typist back then taught me it. It's 100% a hangover from manual typewriters.
 
How old is everyone that was taught to double space? I'd wager the majority are over 30.

I remember using a typewriter as a very young kid but it was more of a novelty thing. Word processors were coming into vogue then and I don't remember being taught to double space then.
 
I'm 32 and was not taught double spacing at school. Although there was rather a lot I wasn't taught at school.
 
Its quite surprising to see how many people on an I.T forum had no idea you were supposed to double space after a full stop, but I guess that's just the way times are changing, these days you don't really need to have learnt how to "operate" a computer in order to "use" it so more and more people are using computers having never been taught the basics. If you do a course in I.T, typography, secretarial, desktop publishing, graphic design, etc you are usually taught to put two spaces after a full stop as that is the correct method when using a computer.

The funniest thing here I think is that the rant written by that blogger who hates double spacing would actually look a lot better and be easier on the eye if he had done it properly lol.
 
ubersonic said:
Its quite surprising to see how many people on an I.T forum had no idea you were supposed to double space after a full stop, but I guess that's just the way times are changing, these days you don't really need to have learnt how to "operate" a computer in order to "use" it so more and more people are using computers having never been taught the basics. If you do a course in I.T, typography, secretarial, desktop publishing, graphic design, etc you are usually taught to put two spaces after a full stop as that is the correct method when using a computer.

The funniest thing here I think is that the rant written by that blogger who hates double spacing would actually look a lot better and be easier on the eye if he had done it properly lol.
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As someone who did a degree in typography/graphic design and was taught the exact opposite, it surprises me that you keep repeating this.
 
ubersonic said:
Its quite surprising to see how many people on an I.T forum had no idea you were supposed to double space after a full stop, but I guess that's just the way times are changing, these days you don't really need to have learnt how to "operate" a computer in order to "use" it so more and more people are using computers having never been taught the basics. If you do a course in I.T, typography, secretarial, desktop publishing, graphic design, etc you are usually taught to put two spaces after a full stop as that is the correct method when using a computer.

The funniest thing here I think is that the rant written by that blogger who hates double spacing would actually look a lot better and be easier on the eye if he had done it properly lol.
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As has been mentioned several times it was the taught method due to being a relic of typewriters using mono-spaced texts, and is no longer required (I had to do typing lessons at school and was not taught to double space).

In general I'm sure the average age of people still double-spacing will be above those who don't, as it was the convention then.
 
I was taught it when doing the Word Processing RSA certificates. Today, however, it has fallen out of favour. In fact, so much so that many professional editors and publishers will not be happy if they see double spacing in a manuscript.
 
Theophany said:
This is the most disturbingly aggressive debate on a total non-issue I've seen in a while. :)
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And yet I'm not surprised, it comes up from time to time and there are two relatively small pockets of people who are quite firmly entrenched in a way that would make the Lilliputians and Blefuscuans despair.

I'm in the "don't care" category, I don't use a double space after a full stop as a matter of course because I wasn't taught to do that nor see the need given normal fonts use standardised spacing. However I'm not going to lose any sleep if other people want to double space their work... what does upset me though is Word's insistence on setting the line spacing to 10pt when I start a new document at work - it's just stupid and I've got to correct it every time.
 
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