
PREPARING THE MANUSCRIPT FOR FORMATTING
by Dominique Petersen
As a book designer, one of my pet peeves is authors putting two spaces after each period in their manuscripts.
The habit of using two spaces comes from a time when most typewriters used monospaced fonts. Adding an extra space after the period at the end of a sentence made the text easier to read.
Today, fonts on computers are proportional and the extra space doesn’t improve readability. In fact, it makes the text look like it is riddled with holes—especially when formatting the manuscript into the book in which the text is justified on both sides.
by Dominique Petersen
As a book designer, one of my pet peeves is authors putting two spaces after each period in their manuscripts.
The habit of using two spaces comes from a time when most typewriters used monospaced fonts. Adding an extra space after the period at the end of a sentence made the text easier to read.
Today, fonts on computers are proportional and the extra space doesn’t improve readability. In fact, it makes the text look like it is riddled with holes—especially when formatting the manuscript into the book in which the text is justified on both sides.

Dominique "Nik" Petersen is a published author, graphic designer, and part-time food photographer. For more information, visit the website at www.NikDesignsGraphics.com and Facebook at www.Facebook.com/NiksBooks or www.Facebook.com/NiksPikks
She can be reached at NikDesignsGraphics@yahoo.ca
She can be reached at NikDesignsGraphics@yahoo.ca