If you grew up tapping away on a beige plastic keyboard or, heaven forbid, an actual typewriter, your thumb probably hits the spacebar twice every time you finish a sentence. It’s muscle memory. It feels right. It makes the page look "cleaner" to your eyes, providing a nice little visual breather before the next thought starts. But honestly? You’re fighting a losing battle against modern typography, and your computer—specifically the software running on it—is likely undoing your hard work behind your back anyway.
The debate over two spaces after a period isn't just a minor squabble between grammar nerds. It’s a generational divide etched into our digital documents.
The typewriter’s ghost in the machine
Why did we even start doing this? It wasn’t an arbitrary rule made up by a mean third-grade teacher. It was a technical necessity. Back in the day, typewriters used monospaced fonts. This meant every single character, from a skinny "i" to a wide "m," took up the exact same amount of horizontal real space. Because of this uniform spacing, sentences tended to run together visually. It was hard for the eye to find the break. Adding that extra second space was a clever hack to help readers distinguish where one sentence ended and the next began.
Everything changed with the advent of digital word processing and proportional fonts.
Modern computers are smart. They use proportional spacing, which adjusts the width of characters based on their shape. An "l" takes up less room than a "w." Because of this sophisticated kerning, the software automatically creates enough visual distinction between sentences. When you drop two spaces after a period into a Google Doc or a WordPress site today, you aren’t helping; you’re actually creating a "river" of white space that breaks the flow of the text and makes it look gappy.
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What the experts actually say
Most people think this is just a matter of opinion, but the gatekeepers of style have been remarkably unified on this for a long time.
The APA (American Psychological Association) used to be the last major holdout. For years, they actually recommended two spaces for draft manuscripts to make them easier to read during the editing process. However, in the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual released in late 2019, they finally threw in the towel. They officially switched to recommending one space. They cited the need for consistency with other major style guides and the reality of modern publishing.
Then you have the Chicago Manual of Style. They’ve been team "one space" for ages. Their stance is pretty blunt: "one space, not two, should follow all punctuations marks." The Associated Press (AP) Stylebook, which governs almost everything you read in a newspaper, is even more militant about it. They hate the extra space because it wastes precious column inches.
Microsoft even stepped into the fray a few years ago. They updated Microsoft Word to start flagging two spaces after a period as a grammatical error. Imagine the collective gasp from millions of office workers when that little blue squiggle first appeared under their double spaces. It was a clear signal that the era of the typewriter was officially dead in the eyes of big tech.
It’s a readability nightmare for the web
If you’re writing for the internet, double-spacing is basically a cardinal sin. HTML—the language of the web—is designed to ignore multiple spaces. If you type five spaces in a row in a standard HTML editor, the browser will usually collapse them into one single space when the page loads.
But sometimes, those extra spaces sneak through as "non-breaking spaces." When that happens on a mobile screen, it can cause weird line breaks. Have you ever seen a word hanging out all by itself on a line, or a giant gap in the middle of a paragraph on your phone? That’s often the result of legacy spacing habits clashing with responsive design.
Web design is about flow.
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You want the reader’s eye to glide down the page, not get tripped up by craters of white space. Most professional editors will run a "find and replace" on any document they receive, instantly swapping every double space for a single. It’s the first thing they do before they even read your first word.
The "it looks better" argument
I hear this a lot: "But I like how it looks!"
Visual preference is subjective, sure. But there is some science involved here. A study published in the journal Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics in 2018 by researchers at Skidmore College tried to settle this once and for all. They used eye-tracking technology to see if two spaces actually improved reading speed.
The results were... complicated.
They found a very slight increase in reading speed for people who used two spaces, but here’s the kicker: it only really helped people who were already "two-spacers" themselves. For everyone else, it didn't make a lick of difference. Basically, your brain likes what it’s used to. If you were trained on two spaces, your brain expects them. If you weren't, they’re just distractions.
In the broader context of 2026 digital communication, the "look" of two spaces is increasingly associated with being "out of touch." It’s a bit like using a "cc:" line in an email when you aren't actually sending a carbon copy of anything. It’s a vestigial tail of a dead technology.
Why the habit is so hard to break
Breaking a habit that’s literally wired into your fingertips is incredibly frustrating. It’s not a conscious choice; it’s a reflex. You finish the thought, you hit the period, and your thumb twitches twice.
I’ve seen people get genuinely angry about this. It feels like a personal attack on their education. "I was taught this way, and it was correct then!" And they’re right. It was correct. But the tools we use have evolved, and the rules of the road have changed along with them. Using two spaces after a period in a modern document is like trying to use a hand signal for a turn while driving a car with perfectly functional LED blinkers. People will see you, but they’ll wonder why you’re doing it the hard way.
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Practical steps for the "double-spacers"
If you’re ready to join the modern era, or if your boss is breathing down your neck about your "gappy" reports, here is how you actually fix this without losing your mind.
First, don't try to change your typing habit overnight. It won't work. You'll just get frustrated and lose your flow. Keep typing exactly how you always have. Let the double spaces fly.
Once you finish your draft, use the "Find and Replace" tool. It’s your best friend.
- Hit Ctrl+F (or Cmd+F on a Mac).
- Type two spaces into the "Find" box.
- Type one space into the "Replace" box.
- Hit "Replace All."
Boom. Problem solved in three seconds.
If you use Google Docs or Microsoft Word, you can also set up "AutoCorrect" or "Substitutions." You can literally tell the program: "Every time I type two spaces, automatically turn them into one." It’s like a digital shock collar for your thumb, but much less painful.
Eventually, you'll notice something weird. You'll start to see the double spaces in other people's work, and they’ll start to look... wrong. They’ll look like holes in the text. That’s the moment you know you’ve officially crossed over.
The world of typography has moved on. The "one space" rule is now the global standard for books, magazines, websites, and academic papers. While the ghost of the typewriter might still haunt your right thumb, the digital age has no room for that extra tap of the spacebar. It’s time to let it go and let your sentences breathe naturally, without the artificial gaps.