On Jan 7, 2008, at 3:45 PM, Andrei Herasimchuk wrote:
> It's similar to the problem that happened with typewriters. The lack
> or true typesetting and kerning between letterforms created the need
> to add multiple spaces behind periods to breakup the copy to make it
> more readable, to the degree that now breaking people of that
> technological habit has been difficult for those in certain age
> ranges that learned the rule. The rule is now no longer needed given
> typewriters have been replaced with devices that allow for more
> accurate typesetting.
I'd buy into this if I saw any indication that applications tended to
put anything but the same size space at the end of a sentence as
between words. But they don't seem to. But maybe InDesign does. I
know many DTP apps have the ability to dynamically shift the width of
spaces in justified text -- and the spacing between letters, too -- to
improve letter packing or other mechanisms, so assuming that the end
of a sentence can actually be detected with reasonable fidelity, it
wouldn't be hard to provide extra width between sentences.
But until I see a whole lot more apps doing it automatically,
including browsers, the only way to ensure that sentences make
themselves visually separated for improved chunking and readability
seems to be to do it manually. (Or to stop caring. Nope, can't
manage that.)
-- Jim Drew
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