Top 10 Design Tips for Creating a Beautiful Design

   #8 [ Do NOT use 2 Spaces and Force Justified Copy Blocks ]

Back in the Days of the Typewriter, We Used 2 Spaces After a Period

In body copy, we used to use two spaces after a period during the 'typewriter' age. This was because original typewriters had monospaced fonts. The extra space was needed for the eye to pick up on the beginning of a new sentence. That need is now negated with modern proportional fonts, hence, one space after a period is now the typographic standard. Two spaces is visually distracting and causes ugly holes or blank spots in the body of the text. This makes the body copy both unattractive and distracting to read.

Forced Justified Copy

Forced justified copy can be beautiful when used correctly. It is best used in wide and long copy blocks. Advanced typography is necessary in order to visually wrap text in a way that is most pleasing to the reader.

For the beginning or intermediate designer, I recommend NOT using force justified copy. When you're copy block is short and narrow, ugly gaps appear between the words and make it difficult to read. Give it a try and see what I mean. The only way to learn these techniques is to experiment a little bit and see what makes the most sense.

DESIGN TIP: Use Flush Left Text for Body Copy. I primarily recommend using flush left text for body copy and most headlines. It is the most foolproof of all the variations and works nicely in almost every instance. I do use centered copy occasionally and flush right only in special circumstances as a design calls for it.