- Law 10: Separate sentences with
one space, not two.
Many people were taught,
and are still being taught,
that when typing, two spaces should
be added at the end of a sentence.
This is a convention that exists
because of outdated technology.
It was never meant to be applied
to modern professionally produced documents.
Here's a paragraph that is set with
two spaces between each sentence.
And this paragraph is set with
one space between each sentence.
The point of a document
is for readers to focus on the text,
not the spaces between sentences.
In this first example,
the extra spaces call way too much
attention to themselves.
The amount of white space is jarring,
and it's disrupting the flow of the paragraph.
In the second example,
the spaces between sentences
don't get in the way and overall,
the paragraph is much more visually pleasing.
If you open a modern professionally
typeset book, magazine, brochure,
or other printed document,
you will see one space between all sentences.
So why do people use two spaces
at the end of sentences?
This convention exists because of the typewriter.
It's important to understand
that typewriters and computers
are very different machines,
and each has unique capabilities and requirements.
One big difference between typewriters
and computers is the typefaces
that are available on each.
Typewriters have mechanical requirements
that dictate the use of monospaced typefaces.
An example of a monospaced typeface
that you may have heard of is Courier.
In contrast, almost all typefaces on modern
computers are proportionally spaced typefaces.
So what does that mean?
In a monospaced typeface,
all characters are given the same
amount of horizontal space.
But in a proportionally spaced typeface,
each character is given a different
amount of horizontal space depending
on the character size and shape.
This makes sense, doesn't it?
A lower case 'i' and an
upper case 'W' are not the same width
and shouldn't be given the
same amount of horizontal space.
In a monospaced typeface,
a space is as wide as every other
character on the page.
It became a convention to use
two spaces at the end of a sentence
so that the break between sentences
would be visually obvious.
In a proportionally spaced typeface,
characters are all different widths,
so one space is plenty to signal
a break between sentences.
Two spaces at the end of a sentence
are not needed and are incorrect
when creating documents on a computer.
Now, you may have never used a typewriter,
so why would you be following
a typewriter convention?
Probably because you were taught
by someone who did use a typewriter
and didn't know that the rules
need to change when you're creating
documents on a computer.
If you're a person who creates text content,
stop hitting the space bar twice between sentences.
It's an old convention,
and it's no longer needed.
If you receive content that was
created by someone else,
the first thing you should do with
these documents is perform a quick
search-and-replace.
Get rid of the double spaces,
and replace them with single spaces.
Let's summarize.
Putting two spaces at the end of a sentence
is an old convention that exists
because of the typewriter.
These extra spaces are disrupting
the visual flow of the text in your document
and calling attention to themselves.
This is pulling attention away
from the text in your document.
So get rid of those extra spaces.
It's an easy way to make your documents
instantly more professional.
That's Law 10.
Separate sentences with one space, not two.