Centered Text One Space

I know that many people were taught to put two spaces between sentences. I was too. But these days, using two spaces is an obsolete habit. Some say the habit originated in the typewriter era. Others believe it began earlier. But guess what? It doesn’t matter. Because either way, it’s not part of today’s typographic practice. If you have to use a typewriter-style font, you can use two spaces after sentences. (These are also known as monospaced fonts.) Otherwise, don’t.

Indents

Use first-line indents that are one to four times the point size of the text, or use 4–10 points of space between paragraphs. Don’t use both.

Bus molorum con et ium volupta turest, eic tota alicide ntiuscil inciis de nimolupis a ipsam aliti commodi aces arumet ese nulloribus eos dolo ium quiaectem. Ugit volorentis voluptatem alignatem nobis doluptam simus enda coreiureiur, est anis nia

Multiple Word Spaces

Don’t use multiple word spaces or other white-space characters in a row.

If you thought that was the limit of word-space geekery, think again. Professional page-layout programs have even more choices. Adobe InDesign, for instance, supports the thin space, but also the third space, quarter space, sixth space, flush space, hair space, figure space, and punctuation space.

Always use hyphenation with justified text.

Hyphenations

In left-aligned text, hyphenation evens the irregular right edge of the text, called the rag. Hyphenation is optional for left-aligned text because the rag will still be somewhat irregular, even with hyphenation. Hyphenation doesn’t improve text legibility. In this case, consider turning it off.

Don’t confuse hyphens and dashes, and don’t use multiple hyphens as a dash.

Hyphens & Dashes

A hyphen is used in phrasal adjectives (listener-supported radio, dog-and-pony show, high-school grades) to ensure clarity. Nonprofessional writers often omit these hyphens. As a professional writer, you should not.

Ampersands

Use ampersands sparingly, unless included in a proper name.