Indent, No Indent, Indent

Peter Rukavina

For a long time the “house style” here on the blog has been to indent the second and following paragraphs by 2 ems. Daniel Burka once criticized this as being a “relic of print.” And it is.

Yesterday, as part of my wiki hacking, I thought to myself “it’s time to get with the program, leave print behind, and do with a more Daniel-approved ‘white space between paragraphs, no indent’ style.” So I did. The result is on the left in the image below:

Screen shot showing no indent (left) and with indent (right)

I tried living with this style for almost 24 hours. But I couldn’t take it. Every time I opened my blog in a browser I recoiled in horror at the ugliness.

So this morning I have reintroduced this relic of print (witness right side of the image above). I’ll just have to live with Daniel’s contempt.

Design

Comments

Submitted by oliver on

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(Note, this is why politicians say context is so important for quotes).

Submitted by Nicole Simon on

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As long as you don’t put this ugly way of writing into your feed (and I remember to not click through because of this), everything is half okay.

Half, because I usually click through to read text on the blog.
Nicole

Submitted by Kevin O on

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I vote for white space. It sort of gives the mind some time to relax between discrete thoughts. I find indent jumbled looking, what’s ugly about white space? Perhaps a half-space (LF) would suit the medium better.

Submitted by Erin on

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I think we are just so accustomed to indentation in text, print or otherwise, that that lack of them feels a bit alien, or wrong. We are taught to indent.

Is compromise possible? Indentation with a space between paragraphs?

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About This Blog

Photo of Peter RukavinaI am . I am a writer, letterpress printer, and a curious person.

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