Two spaces after a full stop

[MyDuvetDay]

Do you do this?

Or do you correct this in other people’s work by deleting all their extra spaces?

Pitman/RSA trained typist here and yes we were taught to do this is on my course. I'm afraid my muscle memory just can't unlearn it.

It’s how I was taught back in the late 70s, on a manual typewriter, and I used it for decades.

I have since taught myself to only use one space.

White rivers - I didn’t realise there was a term for this - yes this is why I object to the use of two spaces after a full stop. It tends to result in unsightly gaps especially if the text is justified.

I was taught in the days of typewriters to do a double stop. I now set type for magazines, books, leaflets etc on a computer - there's no double stop today as the software does the spacing for you.

I also double space as that is how I was taught to type. I like it too, easier to read.

However I now work in comms so am having to try really hard to stop as it's not the done thing now!

I wonder if it does look better. Am practicing it now. Interesting about the typewriters potentially jamming. I guess that's the origin of it. I feel very retro. It almost makes every sentence more of an emphatic statement. Maybe shy people started the single space revolution.

about 1993 I reckon!

Mumsnet automatically deleted the double spaces just then!!!

I delete the extra spaces and take great pleasure in doing so!

I was taught it too, but it hasn't been a thing since word processors came in. DH uses two and it looks so outdated. I will absolutely change it if I'm editing anything.

I was taught 2 spaces after a full stop. This was 40+ years ago and I try not to now as I'm aware that the style has changed. What I just can't get my head around is winter spring summer autumn (shudder).

Most online editors will remove the double spacer at a. And many phone's/software default keyboard shortcuts will auto add a full stop if you double space.

So you could just as easily drop the full stop as the second space if you are a habitual double spacer who wants to ditch the habit ;)

Double space for me as well. Also think it looks better.

I remember being told off in the late nineties in business admin class at school for doing it as the teacher told me it was old fashioned so I just got it in my head not to do it.

I believe that computers and laptops are delivered with a finite number of 'spaces', so you should use them sparingly.

I'm going to try taking the back of my laptop later and see just how many 'spaces' I have got left.

The man at Currys said you can use as many 'carriage returns' as you like because they are a physical attribute of the keyboard and so aren't restricted...

...which is nice.

It WAS a thing.

I work in publishing and one of the first tasks when I get a raw manuscript or piece of copy is to sort out all the weird formatting, including double spaces, because I don’t want to sit and read thousands of words with distracting formatting.

I think it’s hard to unlearn the muscle memory so I do understand why people do it, but it really doesn’t look better. Modern typefaces are designed with the correct spacing after a full stop. Putting in an extra one just makes it look gappy and distracting. So if you do it because you think it looks better, it does not.

I suspect it's no longer used because it takes a nanosecond longer than one space. Think of all you can do with the extra time from only typing a single space, along with all those other short cuts like thx and yh.

I’ve probably worked for many of those companies in editorial and marketing and we strip them all out when it reaches us I’m afraid!

I do double spaces because that's how I was taught to type. I didn't realise it's frowned upon nowadays - neither did anyone I've asked.

I type very quickly so do it without thinking. At my stage of life I'm nor going to change now.

Regarding the question "Why are double spaces no longer used?", as I understand it, it's because they are no longer needed. Old-fashioned typefaces had a uniform width of space for each letter, which meant in effect that (e.g.) two adjacent letter l (el) looked spacier than (e.g.) an adjacent w and letter h. This made it slightly harder to interpret the significance of actual, functional spaces, and the double space at sentence-end mitigated this slightly (not sure exactly how, but the eyes do random shit and all that matters is that the end result helps keep them on target).

It is incredibly old-fashioned now. I worked as a copy-editor for years and very rarely came across authors who did this. With digital technology any unnecessary keystroke has the capacity to mess things up, so I would always tidy them away.

Even if it's muscle memory you can unlearn it, it just takes time. I reckon it took me a couple of years to completely stop once I had decided to.

You make it sound a bit like recovering from alcoholism
Perhaps we need a Double Spacers Anonymous.

I was taught to do a double space when I learned on a manual typewriter back in the mid-80s but I stopped many years ago. I don't believe it's incorrect, it just faded out as a style when people started using eg MS Word rather than the fixed width Courier of older word processors and typewriters.

commenters who say they do it don’t seem to be doing it on MN. I just did it and it feels weird. One space is much more suitable.