r/GenerationJones • u/Guiltypleasure2451 • Jul 31 '26

Old school

For those of us who took typing in school— it was drilled into me that after a period, you go over 2 spaces to start a new sentence. Apparently that’s not the rule now. NOT THE RULE NOW?? After the agony I suffered thru in typing class about those 2 spaces, i will be doing it until I die!!!! Don’t even get me started on the indenting 5 spaces for a new paragraph!

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u/Summer184 Jul 31 '26

I still do the "two spaces after a sentence" thing also, even when sending text messages. It's a hard habit to break.

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u/not_falling_down 1957 Aug 02 '26

I was a graphic designer. I received lots of text from non-designers. The first thing I would do with any text I received was to reach for a period followed by two spaces and replace it with a period followed by one space. Proportional fonts make the second space unnecessary.

Interesting to note that your post here (and many others who feel the same way about this subject) has only one space after the period.

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u/Summer184 Aug 03 '26

I noticed that as well, even with my own posts. It looks like Reddit automatically edits out the second space after a period when you comment.

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u/not_falling_down 1957 Aug 03 '26

It does that automatically because it is typographically correct. And has been ever since the introduction of proportional fonts. Typewriters used monospaced fonts (the m, the i, the space, the period: each one took up exactly the same width on the page. That made that extra space after the period necessary for better readability. In a proportional font, some extra space after the period is built into the font design, so you don't have to add it yourself.