OT: spaces WAS: Re: [Tutor] about regular expression

[Jerry Jorgenson]

On Wed, 26 Mar 2003 17:44:18 -0500
"R. Alan Monroe" <amonroe@columbus.rr.com> wrote:

> Recommendations vary. I was a graphic design major in the late 80s/
> early 90s, and most of the typography articles around that time stated
> that two spaces was becoming deprecated in favor of a single space.
> 
> Alan

Strictly speaking, it depends on the typeface you use. The "two spaces"
were evented because a typewriter has a fixed font and the letters don't
have the same space between them, instead each letter takes up the same
amount of space (an "i" takes the same space as an "m"), so the extra
space was required. When a proportional spaced typeface is used, the space
between each letter is the same, so the eye does not need the extra space
(and typesetting programs, including most DTP programs, have a spell
checker that flags double spacing as an error). Because a lot of text gets
loaded into documents that use proportionally spaced typfaces, it's now
common to use the single space, even in fixed fonts.

The typsetting industry has used a single space for centuries, only the
modern invention of the typewriter caused the "double space" convention.
Now that there are very few typewriters left, the common practice is now
reverting to the proper (or at least traditional) "single space" standard.


Jerry

-- 
Jerry Jorgenson
jerry@j3iss.com
http://www.j3iss.com/