I was taught to double space, didn't realize it wasn't proper. Honestly I think it looks nicer on a page, it delineates sentences more clearly. Apparently it was the standard before computers were a thing, kinda weird that it was the standard where I went to school though.
For a long time I thought the double-space convention was strictly limited to school, since I had never seen a professionally printed book, magazine, or newspaper that used it. I just took a look at my bookshelf and pulled out the oldest book I own (from 1909), and it does indeed use double-spaces.
Before the First World War virtually all English-language books were printed following standard typesetters' spacing rules. By the end of the Second World War most American books and an increasing proportion of English books were printed following the typewriter's English spacing approximation rules.[17] Around this time, the practice of single spacing became more prevalent. There were various circumstances which could have contributed to the change. For example, there was an increase in high-volume low-cost mass-produced printing (e.g., newspapers, pulp novels, magazines). Also, a significant innovation in the typewriter was the breaking of the typewriter "grid" in 1941.
Fun fact: HTML rendering explicitly squashes multiple spaces into one, so if you try to double-space your sentences, it won't display as such in a web browser. This sentence uses double-spaced words, and I'll bet it doesn't look that way to you.
I was taught to as well but entering the computer age then taught not to again. Apparently double space was related to the physical limitations somehow for typewriters? I dunno for sure but it is somehow anachronistic.
Part of it is ease of reading. Double spaces simplify things.
As for why manually add spaces on type writers… but not on computers? It’s simple. Fonts can be adaptive. You’ve got monospaced fonts like courtier knew that would show no difference in spacing unless you add a second space, or fonts like Calibri where the font’s spacing is… less fixed.
A (mechanical) type writer can’t adjust the font at will. It strikes the same spot on a page, in what is basically a grid. Same goes for printing press.
Shit. Now I can't recall if I double space or not. I'm sure I double spaced back when I studied things just for page length.
How long has this been going on?
Lol, it took me a minute to realize I am currently providing myself with the data I wanted. And it looks like my (semi)professional emails are about 50/50, depending if I'm responding.
Is it commonplace to single space after a full stop these days? Thanks!!
Also: that grandpa and his collection are awesome! It's inspiring - not that I'd travel my country (U.S.) to the same extent. Perhaps my state, but there isn't a huge amount of variation, nor do I have the desire to visit some of the areas.
The double space is a relic from typewriters. It is not appropriate to double space anymore and honestly hasn't been since I learned to type in the early oughts
It's twitter, maybe it's back when there was a 140 character limit, which spaces use up, so removing those spaces can save character limit, so you can finish what you want to say.
The only words capitalized are Scotland and he. Most of the time “He” is the first word of a sentence anyway but in some languages all personal pronouns are capitalized and that’s a common mistake in english.