Back when the typewriter was invented, it used the standard two-space rule. It is when you use two spaces after a period. But for people of the 21st century, that seems somewhat wrong.
There is already enough controversy surrounding whether to use one space or two. And now, it seems like Microsoft Word has put a period on that very topic.
Microsoft Word now flags two spaces after a period as an error. It means that the long-debated two-space is now officially a thing of the last era.
A Long-Going Debate
The spacing after a period has been long going debate. For years, people have been using typewriters; thus, the two-space has become a habit hard of killing. But for people to come this far to the computer-era, it seems useless.
The most popular argument is that the two-space was created for monospaced fonts of that of the typewriter. And with modern proportional fonts, the spacing is no longer necessary.
And especially for a proper published work, one-space or single spacing is more appropriate.
Online Reaction
Twitter was flooded this week when people realized the change Microsoft Word had made. There were two sides to the argument; the one that supports it and the one that doesn’t.
The one-spacers have won. Microsoft Word now showing 2 spaces after a period as an error.
— Alan Chen (@profalankchen) April 10, 2020
This brief demonstrates MicroSoft’s extreme and remarkable lack of qualification to prognosticate on the matter.
The space at the end of a sentence is a matter of typography, not of untutored ignorance. Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language LEGIBLE, READABLE and APPEALING when displayed.
It was known to the Romans and, since then, has been developed over the millennia to a very high degree of sophistication. Very few traditional fonts and typographies are difficult to read. Most are visually appealing.
In fact, why do you think we sink into raptures when we read a good book. Would that ever happen if we struggled with the legibility of the printed page? I would argue not.
In the recent past four decades, Microsoft Corporation has, almost single-handedly, destroyed typographic standards and mores. It is responsible for the colon which cannot be discerned – without a forced separation from the preceding word. The period which cannot be discerned in running text when there is no forced extra space to mark the sentence end. And that is only the practical concerns. If I go into the aesthetics of the matter, there is the hyphen which is no longer a hyphen. Rather, it is a crude bar to assault the vision. Unless it is forced to become a sickly small minus sign which is now very difficult to discern.
In every sense, the tail has wagged the dog. Simple convenience for the programmer in the difficult task of meeting the vagaries and limitations of pixelated screens does not justify wholesale trampling on such a long period of successful endeavor and development in THE ART AND TECHNIQUE of Typography.
I might reasonably be trusted when I say that, one day, you will feel as I do. As our visual acuity declines and reading becomes more of a chore, the assault of poor typography is a very real pain. You will wish you had done better.
If Microsoft has had or does have a qualified typographer on staff to direct the development of fonts and digital typography, I will stand partially repudiated – but unrepentant. There are good professionals and technicians. And bad ones. And good ones whose talents are suppressed by Mammon.
I hope and trust that sanity and the sanctity of good typography will prevail and that the digital lords will be dragged, if kicking and screaming, into the 1970s and bring up to date the most fundamental of our non-constitutional rights, the right to read without the challenge of a fundamental lack of legibility, readability or aesthetic quality.