One Space After A Period, Not Two

There is probably no topic about which my wife and I are more at odds, so I am glad that Slate has chimed in on my behalf: one space after a period, not two. Everyone who works in The Industry knows the rule, of course: there is no magazine or newspaper that typesets with two spaces, and it's a sure mark of a book publisher's little-league (self-publishing, and not in a good, quaint, quality way) status if it does. But many, many people persist in two-spacing, and it's one of the article's virtues that the author makes clear it's not a mark of stupidity, low class, or poor morals to do so: there are smart, educated, virtuous people who cling to this solecism. Why? Because that's the way people raised on typewriters learned to do it, since there is some advantage to two-spacing on a typewriter, legibility-wise. But not in typesetting, or computing. And truth be told, it's not a look we strive for in handwriting, either.

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