"foxetown" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote:
>There are so many good causes in the world that I may
have to forego my
>passionate investment in "two spaces after a period," but
I will say that it
>seems to be more than just a subjective argument about
what looks better to our
>eyes.
I agree with you that two spaces does make documents easier
to read, but I
cannot understand the religious fervour of the opponents to
this theory. In the
days of the fixed spaced typewriter two spaces made a real
difference, but with
modern proportional fonts the difference in appearance has
been reduced to the
point where it is almost subliminal. And, if you can barely
see the difference
anyway, why on earth get so uptight about the subject?
As to two spaces being prohibited in the typesetting
industry, typesetters (used
to) exist to set documents for customers. If the customer
wants two spaces, and
they want to stay in business, they had better set it that
way.
For a different view on 19th century documents, have a look
at
http://www.corybas.com/Albums/General/Old_legal_document.php.
This features a
19th century legal document which is handwritten on a very
wide sheet of
parchment, with no punctuation, and no spaces of any type.
The writer even went to the trouble of filling in any
remaining space at the end
of a line with twiddles, so that nothing could be inserted
subsequently. And
the document is virtually unreadable.
Clancy
