Spaces

[herme3]

How many spaces do you think should go after the period in a paragraph? I always thought you were supposed to use two spaces. However, I am writing a novel and my publisher says that there should only be one space. I looked on their web site, and they always use only one space between sentences. How many do you think should be used?

 

It really doesn't matter for my novel, because I will format it according to my publisher's guidelines. However, I'm just curious to know how many spaces most people use.

[ecoli]

two spaces, damn it!

[Klaynos]

I belive most browsers strip double spaces in paragraphs, so looking at their website is useless.

 

I use 2.

[Forensicmad]

I personally always use 1. Ever since I started typing, which is many years ago, I have always used 1. Only recently did I find that 2 was common practise.

I don't think it really matters. My English teacher never cared, nor history.

 

Looking at my Grandad's newly released book, it appears there is only 1 space - that may be due to the justification though.

 

To be honest, I would go with what the publisher says; they know what they are talking about.

[Dak]

both one space and two spaces are correct, as long as you are consistant (i.e. as long as your entire document/novel/whatever has the same no of spaces after a full-stop).

 

My prefference is two: you get a more solid seperation of the sentances.

[scicop]

two. one is retarded.

[Cloud]

I don't understand the question. Do you mean paragraph separation e.g:

 

fgjpfadog'pagh'afpgafg

faghfghaofighaofihg'oafi.

 

___gafghafhg;oafg

dfgjalkdfhgjkfadhgajdfg

_______________________

 

lfgajfklgjafidaghoidfhgaiga

ajfgopjafdgijafdgpajfgpajdfp.

____ gahfughfaughafldiughafli

ahgfihagoifaghaof;igh;aofdg

 

The first one - I pressed two enters (two spaces?). The second one I only pressed 1 enter to "separate" the paragraphs Is this what you meant?

[ydoaPs]

he is talking about spaces at the end of sentences, not double spacing paragraphs.

[Pangloss]

If memory serves, the technically correct answer to the question in terms of classic typography is that words get "en" spaces and sentences get "em" spaces.

 

Unfortunately computers don't have the ability to make this distinction with the normal space character (the space bar does an "en" space), which is why everyone started using two spaces instead of one after sentences at the beginning of the digital revolution.

 

There is an actual "em" space character in the standard unicode character set, but if I remember correctly it can only be accessed with a code sequence. So you can program it into a web page, but you can't type it out on a normal basis.

[Dak]

hmm... well, herme did say the period in a paragraph. he might have meant that.

 

either way, i believe what i said still holds -- both one and two spaces after full-stops, and one or no lines (i.e. one or two line breaks/returns) are acceptable, as long as you're consistant throughout the document.

 

novels almost exclusively use one line break and an indent to seperate paragraphs (i.e., no blank lines) to save space. maybe their reasoning with full-stops/spaces is similar (tho i doubt it makes that much difference).

[Steph]

hmm... well' date=' herme did say the period in a paragraph. he might have meant that.

 

either way, i believe what i said still holds -- both one and two spaces after full-stops, and one or no lines (i.e. one or two line breaks/returns) are acceptable, as long as you're consistant throughout the document.

 

novels almost exclusively use one line break and an indent to seperate paragraphs (i.e., no blank lines) to save space. maybe their reasoning with full-stops/spaces is similar (tho i doubt it makes that much difference).[/quote']

 

I use one space... and well I just found out that two spaces is widely used. now if it makes a difference in a novel, I think it would be visible . I could see you adding a page or two just with that.

[Jim]

I use one space... and well I just found out that two spaces is widely used. now if it makes a difference in a novel, I think it would be visible . I could see you adding a page or two just with that.

 

I use two spaces.