One Space or Two

Last week, on Q I heard about this huge debate raging in the media about using one space or two spaces at the end of a sentence. 

Essentially, this was was the premise of the discussion:

"Slate technology columnist Farhad Manjoo argued that history says one space is correct, typographers agree, and it just looks better.

Engineer and the blogger behind Manifest Density Tom Lee said he actually thinks two spaces look nicer, we should be entitled to our beliefs, and there's mathematical beauty and information-richness in allowing more space."


Apparently, because of self-something or other fonts (fonts that automatically adjust the spacing between letters and words), we don't need to add the extra space between  sentences.

Some 30mumble years ago, when I learned to type (and it was called typing, not keyboarding) there were very definite rules about how to type and how not to type.  I can still hear Mrs. Tennant's* voice as she stood at the front of the class and we sat row on row in front of our manual typewriters (remember those?) with the letters painted out droning on, "J K J space. J K J space."  On and on through the whole keyboard. 

By the end of the school year, we had memorized the entire keyboard and could type properly formatted sentences and paragraphs adhering to strict, cast in stone rules: Indent 5 spaces at the beginning of each paragraph, pay attention as you reach to end of a line so you could hyphenate properly, and always, always use two spaces in between sentences.  Marks would be docked if you didn't have the requisite two spaces.  As we progressed through the course, putting two spaces at the end of a sentence became ingrained, second nature, automatic. 

After all these years,  several of them spent typing for a living,  I wouldn't have even considered one space as an option until I heard that discussion on Q.  What?  One space?  How absurd.  I don't think my thumbs could stop at one space.  It just doesn't look right.  I am definitely a two space girl.

How about you?  One space or two?


*This is the same teacher who walked down the whole length of the school with her skirt tucked into her pantyhose.  She was so despised that no one told her.