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| The practice of writing and recording is researched to have dated back as far as 3400 and 3300 BC, to cuneiform written on clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia. Sumerians used a reed stylus to make impressions in wet clay creating wedge-shaped marks for which they had an alphabet system. <ref> ''Clayton, Ewan. “Where Did Writing Begin?” The British Library, The British Library, 9 Apr. 2019, www.bl.uk/history-of-writing/articles/where-did-writing-begin.''</ref> With the invention of early movable type in the second century AD by Bi Sheng from Yingshan, Hubei, China and the first printing press by Johannes Gutenberg from Mainz, Germany in 1450, a system arose for copying and distributing texts more easily. <ref> ''History.com Editors. “Printing Press.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 7 May 2018, www.history.com/topics/inventions/printing-press.'' </ref> Movable type and printing heavily influenced the style and manner with which text was printed onto a substrate.
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| [[File:Gutenberg_press.jpg|right|thumb|The Gutenberg Press found on [https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/7abcb1de-3ef0-4a6b-ad7a-b521c1deb423| Creative Commons Search]. <ref> ''Plumb, Andrew. “Gutenberg Press 3.” Flickr, 1 Apr. 2006, www.flickr.com/photos/81685076@N00/121285772.''</ref> Dimensions are 768 × 1024 pixels and source is [https://www.flickr.com/photos/81685076@N00/121285772| Flickr].]]
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| == History of Spacing ==
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| Paul Saenger, curator of Rare Books at the Newberry Library of Chicago, claims that word separation occurred as the advantages of reading more easily and swiftly were recognized. The ancient world had no necessity for the ability to skim a piece of text or relay information in writing rather than orally. In addition, very few people were even literate. <ref> ''Stanford University Press. “Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading: Paul Saenger.” Stanford University Press, Stanford University Press, www.sup.org/books/title/?id=683.'' </ref> Saenger also ties the development of word separation to the conceptualization of silent reading. <ref> ''Walker, Thomas D. The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy, vol. 70, no. 1, 2000, pp. 166–167. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4309427. Accessed 28 Nov. 2020.''</ref> He writes in his book, ['''WHY DOESN'T THIS WORK, SOS''' www.sup.org/books/title/?id=683 | Space Between Words The Origins of Silent Reading] that, "In the West, the ability to read silently and rapidly is a result of the historical evolution of word separation that, beginning in the seventh century, changed the format of the written page, which had to be read orally and slowly in order to be comprehended. The onerous task of keeping the eyes ahead of the voice while accurately reading unseparated script, so familiar to the ancient Greeks and Romans, can be described as a kind of elaborate search pattern (6)."<ref> ''Saenger, Paul. Space Between Words The Origins of Silent Reading. Stanford University Press, 1997, Google Books, www.google.com/books/edition/_/w3vZaFoaa3EC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA10.'' </ref>
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| Saenger states, "In Western scripts, spatial organization is a determinative element in the effect of different transcription systems on the cognititve processes required for lexical access and hence on the propensity to read orally or silently. Experiments performed on adult, English-speaking readers confirm that the total suppression or partial obfuscation of spatial boundaries between words increases the duration of the cognitive activity necessary for reading, which in turn produces physiological reactions associated with vocal and subvocal actvity (5). It takes more work to read a text that does not have appropriate spacing between each word. Scribes could aid the reader by deliberately adding more spaces between letters and words than was traditional during that time. "It was the very absence of word boundaries that made the technique of the identification and memorization of those sequences of letters representing licit syllables a fundamental aspect of ancient and early medieval pedagogy."<ref> ''Saenger, Paul. Space Between Words The Origins of Silent Reading. Stanford University Press, 1997, Google Books, www.google.com/books/edition/_/w3vZaFoaa3EC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA10.'' </ref>
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| === Spacing in Typesetting ===
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| [[File:Metal_type.jpg|left|thumb|Metal type found on [https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/7c84d7d5-7467-4b5c-abfb-0e8a290ed939| Creative Commons Search]. Source is [https://www.flickr.com/photos/95157450@N00/5485282340| Flickr] <ref> ''K, Lars. “Metal Type.” Flickr, 27 Feb. 2011, www.flickr.com/photos/95157450@N00/5485282340.'' </ref> and has dimensions 767 × 1024 pixels.]]
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| Line spacing describes the amount of empty space between rows of text; it is also called '''leading''', a term that comes from the era of movable metal type that used blank strips of lead of varying thickness to replicate spacing on a substrate. Line spacing in a variety of programs and technologies can be expressed as "pixels, points or centimeters (px, pt or cm), or as a percentage of the type size (120% or 1.2). Other accepted terminology includes normal, small and big." Regardless of type size, line spacing varies depending on the typeface. "Generous line spacing helps the eye and brain to more easily decipher the character shapes, words and word groupings, which is how we read. The smaller the type size, the greater the line spacing needed, proportionally speaking, to offset the reduced readability of small settings." <ref> ''Strizver, Ilene. “Line Spacing For Text.” Fonts.com, Monotype Imaging Inc, www.fonts.com/content/learning/fontology/level-2/text-typography/line-spacing-for-text.'' </ref>
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| Word spacing, the amount of empty space in between each individual word, is equally as important in aiding the reader in speed and comprehension of the text. "Over-tight word spacing causes words to appear to run into each other, making it more difficult for the reader to distinguish one word from the next. Conversely, word spacing that is too open – the more common occurrence – creates oversized blocks of white space between words, forcing the reader to read individual words rather than phrases or blocks of copy. This dramatically slows down the reading process, reducing reader comprehension and increasing the risk of distraction." <ref> ''Strizver, Ilene. “Word Spacing.” Fonts.com, Monotype Imaging Inc, www.fonts.com/content/learning/fontology/level-2/text-typography/word-spacing.'' </ref>
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| [https://www.fonts.com/content/learning| Fonts.com] is a great place to start to learn about typography.
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| ==== Kerning ====
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| Kerning is the intentional spacing between individual letters (within a word) or characters. Some designers or scribes manually modify the amount of space between characters in addition to the typical spacing dictated by a digital writing program. Kerning results in text that is not only easily legible, but also aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Companies like '''Nike''' and '''FedEx''' use kerning in their logos and mottos to cause their audience to feel or think a certain way. <ref> ''DeCotes, Madeline, et al. “An Introduction to Kerning.” Adobe, Adobe, www.adobe.com/creativecloud/design/discover/kerning.html.'' </ref>
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| The Adobe computer software has many resources pertaining to graphic design such as [https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/design/discover/kerning.html| kerning] and also information about the [https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/design/discover/typesetting.html art and science of typsetting].
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| == The Modern Spacing Debate ==
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| People have since switched from typewriters and printing presses to the personal computer, cell phone, and tablets of today. These technologies have digitized text as well as writing. The rules of spacing are now easier to follow, even automated depending on the specific program. One popular one is Microsoft Word, a text processor designed by a multinational technology company. There are constantly many typographical and grammatical debates in the English world ranging from the Oxford comma controversy to possessive apostrophes for words that end with the letter s. One such debate is whether to put one or two spaces after the punctuation at the end of a sentence. This issue was further propagated by Microsoft Word's grammar and spelling check function as it started marking two spaces after the end of a sentence as incorrect.
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| The number of spaces one should put after the end of a sentence originates "from the era of manual typewriters, which relied on monospaced type, with each character occupying an equal amount of horizontal space." Double spacing after a sentence helped to distinguish the end of one sentence from the commencement of the next. However, new technologies with automated and standardized spacing and the ability to '''kern''' letters allows for this rule to become less necessary. For some people, it is difficult to make this change from a practice that has once been standardized for so long.<ref> ''Wu, Katherine J. “Why Microsoft Word Now Considers Two Spaces After a Period an Error.” Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian Institution, 27 Apr. 2020, www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/microsoft-word-now-considers-two-spaces-after-period-error-180974754/.'' </ref> This phenomenon is explored in this [www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/microsoft-word-now-considers-two-spaces-after-period-error-180974754/| Smithsonian Magazine article.
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| == Other Interesting Typographical Topics ==
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| The History of Punctuation
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| The History of Font Sizes
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| The History of Font Types
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| The History of Paragraph Indentation
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| Spacing in Chinese and Languages that Use Characters
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| == Reminders ==
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| '' Italics use double quotation marks ''
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| ''' Bold uses triple quotation marks '''
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| Outside links use single brackets and pipe for name [https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=683| Stanford University Press book]
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| == References ==
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