[thelist] double space between sentences

[Andrew Forsberg]

Chris Blessing said:

>Screen reading isn't like paper reading; there's a reason for single spaces.
>=)

Hi Chris,

Actually, well designed books never have double spaces -- it's
another nasty hangover from the 19th century. Typewriter scripts are
(arguably) more legible when a double spaces follows a full stop,
because the characters are monospaced. Some secretarial schools still
train their students to do this, although god only knows why.

I can't think of a good reason for using it with online documents.
Most of the type faces in use are of a good quality (thanks primarily
to Microsoft's typographic efforts, I guess). Monospaced type online
is usually code, and one doesn't read that in the same way anyhow. If
a specified typeface has really bad kerning, then adding more space
between the sentences could incur even more damage to legibility than
the poorly designed type. A better solution is to specify type which
does render well.

That said, Ardvark does have a different argument here:
http://www.roselli.org/adrian/articles/2spaces.asp

What reason, Erik, were you given for needing double spaces?

Excuse me for being overly pedantic...
Andrew
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