From the course: The 33 Laws of Typography

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10 Separate sentences with one space, not two

10 Separate sentences with one space, not two

From the course: The 33 Laws of Typography

10 Separate sentences with one space, not two

- Law 10: Separate sentences with one space, not two. Many people were taught, and are still being taught, that when typing, two spaces should be added at the end of a sentence. This is a convention that exists because of outdated technology. It was never meant to be applied to modern professionally produced documents. Here's a paragraph that is set with two spaces between each sentence. And this paragraph is set with one space between each sentence. The point of a document is for readers to focus on the text, not the spaces between sentences. In this first example, the extra spaces call way too much attention to themselves. The amount of white space is jarring, and it's disrupting the flow of the paragraph. In the second example, the spaces between sentences don't get in the way and overall, the paragraph is much more visually pleasing. If you open a modern professionally typeset book, magazine, brochure, or other printed document, you will see one space between all sentences. So why…

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