This is a question that has become more and more bothersome as I type more and more posts and Wrap-up emails. (If you haven’t signed up for my emails, you are missing out on my commentary about my posts from the previous week. Just ask the two people that got one yesterday. You should be able to find a box to enter your email around here somewhere.)
How many spaces should there be at the end of a sentence?
Should it be one, or two?
Maybe I should just do a hard return after every sentence, then I don’t have to worry about it.
But, seriously. I know what Mrs. Reznicek taught me freshman year. Two spaces. So that is what I do, because that is what the muscle memory in my thumbs and a decades long habit does without my brain even having to think about it.
However, years ago, I saw this artirle that talks about how two spaces is wrong and it should be one space instead, and he is very sure of himself. To be honest, what he actually comes off as is full of himself and a little off-putting so reading this article didn’t really change my mind. Mostly because of that muscle memory and habit thing, and because I still think text looks better with a larger space between sentences. Also, there is this very long article calling out the description given in the Slate article as revisionist history, at best, and ends by basically saying “do what you want and don’t be an ass.”
So, why do I even bring it up?
The Leading Space Effect
When I look back over what I have typed before I publish an article or send an email, I often see something that looks like this:
The issue may not stand out to you, but I notice it, and when I do, I go back and take out a space. Let me make it more clear. (Holy cow, it just happened before that last sentence in my post editor!)
The problem is, I pretty much always use two spaces, except if I notice a leading space on a line somewhere. However, I know that if I just re-size my window that leading space will go away, and I know that there is a high likelihood that the person reading my text will not be reading it in the same width window that I am composing it in. So, that should make me feel better and allow me to not worry about it, but it doesn’t. It actually makes me feel worse.
Why, you ask?
Precisely because of that fact that I know about the medium that most people will be reading my writing on, namely a computer with adjustable width windows, and the nature of the responsive web. Every person who views my writing could be doing so in a slightly different resolution and, therefore, there is the potential that any sentence I type could begin on a new line with a leading space.
They missed the point
So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the real reason to care about how you space your sentences when working online. Hint: it has nothing to do with typography rules.
Over the past few years, the web has become “responsive.” What that means is that the content on a webpage adjusts depending on the size of the screen – or window – you are viewing it in. For the author that means you cannot be positive where soft line breaks will happen in your text. Maybe someday there will be a technology that is smart enough to adjust for screen size and be content aware enough to remove leading spaces. Until that time, I’m afraid I will have to side with the single spacers when publishing content online.
If you want a more polished and professional appearance to your web content, you should only use one space to avoid the “leading space effect.”
Let me be clear, though, if you are typing something to be printed I personally still like two spaces, but I don’t care which way you choose to do it. In fact, even if you are publishing something online, I’m not going to get mad at you if you use two spaces (I still did for pretty much this whole post, muscle memory and all).
Now if I can just figure out how to break the habit and follow my own advice.