Re: Space after Periods

Terry Allen (terry@ora.com)
Thu, 1 Jul 1993 16:08:35 PDT

> Terry Allen writes:
> > Rendered text usually has more space after a period that closes
> > a sentence than after a period that marks an abbreviation,
>
> Wait a second.... is the model a typewritten page or a published
> page? Typists follow the rule of adding an extra space between
> sentences within a paragraph. The rule for books (and by extension,
> anything that does not use a fixed-pitch, monospaced font) is to use
> the same space between sentences as between words. (I checked the
> standard references, both "Words into Type" and the "Chicago Manual
> of Style," on this.)

You should look at real books instead.

> > in Tex you have to escape a period after an abbreviation
>
> I'm not a Tex user, so I don't know why Tex adds the extra space. But
> it seems to me that there should be no issue here.

Tex adds the extra space because that's how many if not most
typographers think it should be, Chi Manual or not.

> A WWW document (which uses proportional fonts) should have the same
> space between sentences as between words.

Xmosaic has correctly implemented more space after periods ending
a sentence. >

> Daniel Kehoe

Regards,

-- 
Terry Allen  (terry@ora.com)
Editor, Digital Media Group
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
Sebastopol, Calif., 95472