Sentences sentenced to head-on collisions

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saparris
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Postby saparris » Tue Mar 02, 2010 6:45 pm

There was a font poll back in 2005:

http://www.alphadictionary.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=138

Perhaps it should be revisited. I would love to see a serif font like Times, Palatino, or some other Roman font. They're easier to read.
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Postby Slava » Tue Mar 02, 2010 7:03 pm

There was a font poll back in 2005:

http://www.alphadictionary.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=138

Perhaps it should be revisited. I would love to see a serif font like Times, Palatino, or some other Roman font. They're easier to read.
Hmm, I see you disagree with the authors of one of the sites you posted earlier:
Sans-serif fonts are far easier to read on-screen.
http://www.a3webtech.com/index.php/doub ... -stop.html

I say it's all a matter of opinion as to readability. Whatever you like and are comfortable with is what counts.

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Postby saparris » Tue Mar 02, 2010 8:49 pm

Hmm, I see you disagree with the authors of one of the sites you posted earlier:
I do disagree with the idea that sans serif fonts are easier to read on screen, particularly if your reading text. They're great for headlines and work well on billboards. But serif fonts have more uniqueness--letter for letter--than sans serif fonts, making them easier to read. Take a look at S and 5, B and 8, g and q, l and I in serif and sans serif, for example.

My opinion. Back to our McNuggets.
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Postby Perry Lassiter » Fri Jun 17, 2011 12:34 pm

  • this is over a year later from an ipad. For whateve it's worth, on iphones and ipads one double spaces at the end of a sentence, and it automatically adds the period. I just added a space aft the period, which could make some of you happier. On the other hand, the touch screen has a tendency to add or drop letters as a result of either not hitting the key hard enough or accidentally brushing another key.
pl

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Postby saparris » Fri Jun 17, 2011 1:59 pm

I have an iPhone and know what you're talking about. However, when you double space to add a period automatically, you end up with the period and ONE space before the subsequent word. Try deleting and counting the deleted spaces and I think you'll find that the iPad is the same.
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Postby Slava » Fri Jun 17, 2011 4:50 pm

And, at least on this site, it doesn't matter how many spaces you put in after the period. It's always chopped down to one. As in this message. I put 5 spaces after each period. At least on screen I did. They're all gone.
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Postby Philip Hudson » Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:32 pm

I spent a few years being a printer.

Ask yourself the question, "Do I want my text to be pretty, or do I want it to have maximum legibility?" I opt for maximum legibility. When I was a printer I read a stylebook that contained a legibility study. I did not make the tests myself. The stylebook said that simple Roman fonts, such as "Times New Roman" were the best for legibility and for saving space. It also said that the habit of "justified text", having each line the same length no matter how many letters were in the line, was pretty but not nearly as legible as "ragged right", the way it appears when using typewriter. The guide also said that double spaces at the end of a sentence enhance readability. Blank lines between pargraphs were recommended but indents were said to be acceptable. Effects such as "hanging indents" were frowned upon.

I wish I had the guide to quote, but my copy is long gone. It was written sometime the 1960s but I don't know on whose authority. What you are reading now is called a Gothic font. It is more aesthetically pleasing but is much harder to read than a Roman font. For legibility, italics are definitely out. Bold type is good for emphasis. With my old eyes, I type everything in large bold type. I typed this offering in a large bold Times Roman font on Microsoft Word and then copied it into this space.

For a forum, I am willing to go along with whatever the forum uses. If I can't read it, I just copy it into Microsoft Word and change type style and point size.
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Postby Philip Hudson » Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:47 pm

P. S. to my last posting:

White paper or background and black letters enhance legibility. Script fonts are definitely less legible and should be used only if a classy look is wanted. All upper case or all lower case letters are less legible than upper and lower case letters combined according to capitalization rules.

e e cummings is hard to read.
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Postby Perry Lassiter » Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:05 pm

You mentioned colors. I'm about to gripe to news stations about writing white on yellow, which is indecipherable on my 48in screen. I also find myself frequently hittlng alt-a to select all and make white letters when the type is black or blue on blue or black background. I have no trouble reading stuff on this site. No one taught me to type, so I always just skijpped one space. I was 40 before I learned the two space concept.
pl

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Postby saparris » Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:26 pm

God is punishing you for having a 48-inch screen.
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Re: Sentences sentenced to head-on collisions

Postby David Myer » Sat Jul 18, 2020 6:52 am

This is an interesting discussion, even if ten years old. The modern (and certainly post-2010) convention is to single space. But none of this discussion (except Phillip's comment) bears on the real argument. The purpose of writing is to communicate. Anything the writer does to make it easier for his or her audience to read and understand the communication is a good thing. Unquestionably (at least I can't understand anyone who questions this) a double space is easier to digest and understand.

But so entrenched is the modern convention that programs (including this one) have been written to delete the double space. Retrograde in my opinion.

I am absolutely with you Phillip. I wonder if you will see this?

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Re: Sentences sentenced to head-on collisions

Postby Philip Hudson » Sat Jul 18, 2020 7:33 pm

Hey, David. I am still able to sit up and take nourishment and i still respond to Goodword postings. In the past, this thread was a fun romp. I still double space after a period or question mark. However, I take no umbrage to having one space deleted by an automated editor. As I age I mellow. No longer a young whippersnapper, I totter along. I just had my 83rd birthday. This forum has been a joy to me for many years. I hope to contribute more. Since the pandemic started, I have hunkered down. In the USA I see no end in sight. But the Good Lord bids me "occupy" until he comes, so I do what I can do. My fictitious residence is in the hinterlands where I was born. However, I actually live in The Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. I tend my flower beds and my veggie garden. Even before the pandemic I was somewhat a recluse. My dear wife is with me and my dutiful daughter does all our shopping.
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Re: Sentences sentenced to head-on collisions

Postby David Myer » Sun Jul 19, 2020 12:41 am

Marvellous, Phillip. It is an honour to know you. Reading between your lines, I suspect you are managing antiquity well despite set-backs here and there. If it is any comfort, a neighbour here in Melbourne is now 100 and a half and still living on his own at home. He does get frailer every day, and I suspect when he returns from hospital with his latest fall, he will finally succumb to the local and excellent old folks place round the corner. He does need help now. But 100 on your own is a great achievement. You have some way to go, and lovely to have a your partner with you. Yes, we despair at USA's approach to this virus. What a pity the whole process is so divisive. I fear your President is actually going through his own process of degeneration. But his contribution now is so anti-social and confrontational that I despair for the future. I do hope (although nothing to do with me really) that he doesn't continue beyond this term in office. We need a leader who brings people together and works for the benefit of all the people rather than just himself (as it appears to me from this distance - you may have a different view). I sense that politics is a no-no for discussion on this website, but we are in a sufficiently obscure spot, that I may get away with it. I have never been to Texas and I am never likely to come. I 'did' North America in 1968, Pierre Trudeau, Bobby Kennedy and the Chicago Riots. Happy days, for me anyway. But I am not inclined to return, certainly under current corona virus conditions and with your corrosive political set-up.

Delighted to hear that you are mellowing. I know that many people gradually become grumpier as their faculties diminish. I expect from the sound of it that you will avoid that stage. Equanimity is a blessing.

As far as this website goes, I worry that there is little younger blood behind its columns. Many of the original regulars have gone quiet - presumably too old to be bothered. But you are right, for anyone vaguely amused by language, this is certainly a joyous place to be. Looking forward to more discussion with you and the others in the future. Best wishes

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Re: Sentences sentenced to head-on collisions

Postby bbeeton » Sun Feb 19, 2023 11:26 pm

Here's one more well-after-the-fact contribution to a contentious topic. I too am of the "old school", having retired after 56+ years working for a publisher of mathematics, more than 45 years as a member of the technical support staff in charge of the care and feeding of the computer-based typesetting system and the people who depend on it (authors, copyeditors, etc.).

I have an actual reason for sticking with the wider space at the end of a sentence, i.e. the frequent use of abbreviations in academic publishing. (Yes, I know that there should be a comma after "i.e.", but "editorial lite" is having its way, and such things slip by.) So, where is the end of the sentence?

Another U.S.-centric practice that drives me to distraction is the Chicago dictum that punctuation should always be placed inside quote marks, Well, I won this argument with the local copyeditors. Fowler says "use logic". That didn't work. But when I produced complaints from authors that my carefully crafted input instructions (Type this: "xxx") didn't work, because a period had been carefully copyedited in at the end, they surrendered. At least for any documentation I wrote.


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