I was taught to double space when I took typing in junior high. Twenty years ago, I was informed that the standard was now to single space, so I changed how I did it. It never occurred to me to whine about it for two decades instead.
One thing I do now whenever I set a book up is fix the extra spaces. Not just the double spaces after periods, but places where the client has attempted to format the book by indenting paragraphs five spaces.
I was taught to use two spaces, I use two spaces. I find it no more or less readable to have one or two spaces after a period. If the content is so tedious that the reader must count the spaces, the issue is not with the typography.
Back when I was setting (real) type -- as an amateur -- I used an em-quad (=the widest letter in the font) between sentences, rather than the en-quad typical for between-words spacing, and sometimes a bit more if that made justifying the line easier.
For typing, I continue to use two spaces, on the theory that if any serious typesetter works with my digital text it's easy enough to Globally Search for two consecutive spaces and Replace them with one. Mostly, this seems to be because I, personally, find large blocks of text with the more-distinct spacing between sentences a little bit easier to read. Mind you, for Serious Typography I think it's also important to consider the Optical Effect produced by the shapes of the letters on either side of the space. On the whole, I consider this an aesthetic choice, rather than something subject to rigid Rules.
(I note, by the way, that LJ's Preview of this comment appears to replace my double-space with a single space. *sigh*)
there's a perfectly logical story behind this 1-space, 2-space stuff —
and I, thankfully, after 35 years as a professional typesetter, no longer care. If I try to set type correctly, I get yelled at by the salesperson, telling me I'm insulting their client... so I just make the doughnuts... want sprinkles on that? Sure, why not...
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One thing I do now whenever I set a book up is fix the extra spaces. Not just the double spaces after periods, but places where the client has attempted to format the book by indenting paragraphs five spaces.
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K.
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For typing, I continue to use two spaces, on the theory that if any serious typesetter works with my digital text it's easy enough to Globally Search for two consecutive spaces and Replace them with one. Mostly, this seems to be because I, personally, find large blocks of text with the more-distinct spacing between sentences a little bit easier to read. Mind you, for Serious Typography I think it's also important to consider the Optical Effect produced by the shapes of the letters on either side of the space. On the whole, I consider this an aesthetic choice, rather than something subject to rigid Rules.
(I note, by the way, that LJ's Preview of this comment appears to replace my double-space with a single space. *sigh*)
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and I, thankfully, after 35 years as a professional typesetter, no longer care. If I try to set type correctly, I get yelled at by the salesperson, telling me I'm insulting their client... so I just make the doughnuts... want sprinkles on that? Sure, why not...