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?

I’d rather they made spelling errors than this. I delete too.

But you have to keep up with the times. There is no need now to use double spaces.

Why?

We were taught one space after a comma, two after a full stop.

No, not really. That said I am aware of it because I have read similar threads before. My point was that I do it because it hasn’t been ‘untaught’ - i don’t really just copy other people.

Nope, single-space has been in common use since long before that (back in the early 90s when I started using computers).

@RampantIvy You should read the memoir Never Learn to Type by Dame Margaret Anstee, who worked at the United Nations. She says knowing how to type was often used as a trap to keep capable women stuck in secretarial roles!

It's been on my bookcase untroubled for years embarrassingly.

What's justification?

I double space. It was how I was taught in the 90s. I'm not stopping now!

If it was an issue, you can just get ai or the software to change the spacing for you after the fact.

As a PP says, it's muscle memory from learning to touch type many years ago. My brain is wired to do it.

I don’t double space. Never have. Worked in journalism and PR all my life, and all my employers had the single space as standard, including the newspapers.

I do, and I always will. It looks right. Bollocks to everyone else!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Double spacers - does it annoy you when software, like here on MN, alters it to one space?

They won’t answer you because they can only read things if double spacing after full stops is used for clarity so they can’t actually read MN threads. Or all books. Or all advertisements. Or all websites. Or all newspapers.

When the spacing in each line of text is adjusted so the content fits the full width of the printed area. It means the spacing is different on each line and it’s more difficult to read. Goodness knows why anyone does it.

I still do it. Gives you the time to take a breath.

At work, we once sent an author's typewritten ms off to the typesetter with "justify" scrawled in red pen down the margin (house style rule). The typesetters turned the word into a note to the author. The author indignantly replied that we could hardly expect him to justify his argument more than he'd done already.

I take out extra spaces (or my macro does). Plenty of aspects of publishing are limited by character count, and spaces do count for that.

Thanks @DistantEarlyWarning I can't say I've been aware of this but I'll look out for it on my Kindle

I do it. That's how I was taught to type at school in the 1990s. Looks wrong to me with a single space.

Always double space after a full stop. 40 years since I was taught RSA I’m not changing now.
Whe I’m asked to proof read anything, I’ll add them in.

Do you check with the publisher first?

Part of my job was to delete double spaces. We’re not using typewriters anymore 😆

Generally they ask me to make any amendments I see fit. I tell them what I’ve done grammatically and punctuation wise and they have never changed my alterations.

As an editor, it's really irritating. One of the first things I do is a 'find and replace' to remove any double spaces.

Double spaces definitely don't look better IMO.

I’m 62 and a life long double spacer. I think it looks better. Old habits die hard.