Nothing Says Over 50 Like Two Spaces after a Period! Unless you are typing on an actual typewriter, you no longer have to put two spaces after a period.
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Two spaces after a period? Never!
Many of the documents we receive at the Translation Services include the two-space error.
However, major style books such as the Harvard Style Guide, the Modern Language Association (MLA)
style, the Chicago Manual of Style and The Canadian Style, specify that there should only be a single
space after a concluding punctuation mark. This rule applies to English and French.
Double spaces between sentences? øAbsolutely not.
Why is double spacing such a common practice?
Inserting two spaces at the end of a sentence is a relic from typewriting conventions. Typewriters used
monospaced fonts, meaning that every character occupied an equal amount of horizontal space. Today,
almost all computer fonts (Courier being one exception) are proportional. The two spaces are therefore
no longer required.
References:
Government of Canada, Portail linguistique du Canada. Espace après le point. Retrieved from: http://www.noslangues-
ourlanguages.gc.ca/bien-well/fra-eng/typographie-typography/espacepts-spacepts-fra.html.
Strizver. I. Fonts.com – Double Spaces Between Sentences - NOT! Retrieved from:
http://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fyti/typographic-tips/double-spaces.
Two spaces after a period? Never!
Many of the documents we receive at the Translation Services include the two-space error.
However, major style books such as the Harvard Style Guide, the Modern Language Association (MLA)
style, the Chicago Manual of Style and The Canadian Style, specify that there should only be a single
space after a concluding punctuation mark. This rule applies to English and French.
Double spaces between sentences? øAbsolutely not.
Why is double spacing such a common practice?
Inserting two spaces at the end of a sentence is a relic from typewriting conventions. Typewriters used
monospaced fonts, meaning that every character occupied an equal amount of horizontal space. Today,
almost all computer fonts (Courier being one exception) are proportional. The two spaces are therefore
no longer required.
References:
Government of Canada, Portail linguistique du Canada. Espace après le point. Retrieved from: http://www.noslangues-
ourlanguages.gc.ca/bien-well/fra-eng/typographie-typography/espacepts-spacepts-fra.html.
Strizver. I. Fonts.com – Double Spaces Between Sentences - NOT! Retrieved from:
http://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fyti/typographic-tips/double-spaces.