Well, I guess I'm an a-typical reader - although quite voracious - since I do notice the grammar, the punctuation, et.al. ;-)
From: Virgil Arrington <[email protected]> Date: Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 5:45 PM Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] spacing after punctuation To: [email protected] Anne, Don't misunderstand me. I much prefer a single space after sentence ending punctuation for reasons I have written many times before. I was just surprised that Jury advocated going further and using an even narrower space. I consider that a little over the top, even for an obsessive typophile like me. I doubt that any such narrowing would even be noticeable by the typical reader. And the optical illusion of a wider space that Jury notes is caused by the inherent space included with periods and commas should satisfy the two space folks. Virgil On 09/05/2013 05:05 PM, anne-ology wrote: I'm so glad to see another remembering how things were - and > another > reason I prefer [OO then] LO over MsFt ;-) > when I add those 2 spaces, I want them to remain. > > With the age of these machines many rules of grammar seemed to fall > away; only to bring about less comprehensive communication ;-( > > And now with all this thumb-typing and even more use of acronyms, > et.al. proper communication skills will be declining further ... > can we resurrect the ol' grammarians and Latin-Greek scholars > to > teach the kids these basics before they lose all social skills. > > > > From: Virgil Arrington <[email protected]> > Date: Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 12:08 PM > Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] spacing after punctuation > To: "T. R. Valentine" <[email protected]>, LibreOffice-list < > [email protected]> > > > Am I reading this right? Is Jury suggesting that space after periods > actually be *less* than a standard word space? If so, that is diametrically > opposed to the typewriter standard of adding two spaces after sentence > ending punctuation. > > Virgil > > > > From: T. R. Valentine > Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2013 11:23 AM > To: LibreOffice-list > Subject: [libreoffice-users] spacing after punctuation > > As a follow-up to our earlier discussion of one versus two spaces > following a full point/full stop/period, I offer the following passage > from /About Face: Reviving the Rules of Typography/ by David Jury > (typos mine): > > > [begin quotation, page 92] > <bold>Space between words</bold> > The sole reason for spaces between words is to help the reader to > recognise individual word shapes. The space should be the minimum to > fulfil this task, commonly stated as the width of an > <italic>i</italic>. > > Close, consistent word spacing will make it easier for the eye to > smoothly skip along a line of text with minimum pauses. Visually, a > page of text should appear as an orderly series of thin, horizontal, > evenly textured lines, separated by channels of clear space. If the > setting is loose, there is a tendency for the texture of these lines > to appear uneven, fractured, and, in the worst cases, broken. > Persistent use of over-large word spaces (particularly if these become > wider than the interline spaces) can align with spaces in other lines > to create white, vertical 'rivers' through the text. Comprehension > will certainly be impaired if the type cannot keep the reader's eye on > the line, and a tightly spaced line will greatly help. There should be > a sharp contrast between the line of text and the interline spaces, > allowing each to provide strength and support to the other. > > Similarly, space before and after uppercase characters can be reduced, > and, if required, the same applies to parentheses and brackets. The > shape of some lowercase characters, such as the v, w and y, also offer > the opportunity to reduce word spacing where they begin or end a word. > The size of the x-height also influences the amount of word space > required. The larger the x-height the larger the counters. This means > that the spaces separating words also need to be larger to ensure the > word shapes are clearly defined. > > Every effort needs to be made to maintain consistency, especially in > demanding circumstances; for example, where punctuation occurs, or > where a roman text includes italics or involves a large number of > people's names with initials or clusters of numerals; all of these > need to be dealt with in such a way that they blend, inconspicuously, > into the page of text. > > <italic>Punctuation</italic> > Word spaces, preceding or following punctuation, should be optically > adjusted to appear to be of the same value as a standard word space. > > If a standard word space is inserted after a full point or a comma > then, optically, this produces a space up to 50% wider than that of > other word spaces within a line of type. This is because these > punctuation marks carry space <italic>above</italic> them, which, when > added to the adjacent standard word spaces, combines to create a > visually larger space. Some argue that the 'additional' space after a > comma and full point serves as a 'pause signal' for the reader. But > this is unnecessary (and visually disruptive) since the pause signal > is provided by the punctuation mark itself. > > The word space should be reduced to take account of the space above > the comma or full point. The aim must be to provide an overall space > which is the optical equivalent of a standard word space. Spaces > between words, regardless of punctuation, should maintain an even > <italic>optical</italic> value equivalent to that of a standard word > space. > > Similarly, quote marks (turned comma and apostrophe, singly or paired) > carry space <italic>beneath</italic> them. Consequently, spaces before > the turned comma and after the apostrophe should be reduced to the > optical equivalent of a standard word space. Single rather than double > quotes will make it easier to maintain constant optical word spaces. > > The colon and semi-colon, and also parenthesis will benefit from a > reduction in the word spaces immediately adjacent to them. Question > and exclamation marks, generally, do not require an adjustment to the > following word space. > [end quotation] > > Jury's book should fascinate anyone interested in typography. -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: [email protected] Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
