[comp.text.tex] Indentation of paragraphs versus space between pa

graeme@otago.ac.nz (03/14/91)

Indenting paragraphs versus space between paragraphs

A lot of people doing their own typesetting fall into the
trap of putting space between paragraphs rather than 
indenting paragraphs.
  This seems to have come about through the influence of
typewriting, where it is easier (i.e., quicker) to type
the <return> key twice rather than a <return> and a 
<tab> key.
  TeX and LaTeX, by default, indent paragraphs rather
than insert space between paragraphs, but many users
go to a lot of trouble to reverse this. (It is actually
very easy to do, and involves setting 2 commands:
\parindent and \parskip.)
  Jan Tschichold, one of the most influential typographic
designers of this century, has this to say on the subject:

  Indentation is technically and aesthetically the
  best and simplest way to distinguish paragraphs and
  it would be foolish to regard it as out of
  date. ...

  It is better to distinguish paragraphs certainly by
  means of indentation than uncertainly by line
  endings. ...

  Extra space between paragraphs should never be used
  instead of indentation in books and magazine work;
  it is excusable only in newspapers and cheap
  pamphlets.
  \cite[page~48]{Tschichold}

  The advantage of indention is that it is immediately
obvious that a new paragraph has started. Vertical spacing,
on the other hand, needs the previous paragraph before it
can be decided that a new paragraph has started.
Furthermore, if a paragraph starts at the top of a page, it
is impossible for the reader to know whether it is a new
paragraph or the continuation of the previous paragraph.
The same problem occurs when starting a new paragraph after
a list or other displayed text: it is very difficult to
know whether it is a new paragraph or a continuation of the
same paragraph.
  Vertical space is better employed to emphasize headings,
quotes, lists, etc. Here, it clearly displays the text.


Indentation after a heading?

The Chicago Manual of Style (page 575) suggests not
indenting the first paragraph after a heading. Why? The
absence of indentation draws attention to both the
paragraph and the heading.


Summary

Modern typography is all about `form following function',
i.e., each part of the design has to justify its existence
in terms of enhancing readability.
  Indenting paragraphs is an economical way of signalling the
start of a new paragraph (and hence new idea). It then
leaves vertical space to be employed to display text such
as extracts, lists, etc. 
  Under NO circumstances should paragraphs be both spaced
and indented.


References

\bibitem{Tschichold}
Tschichold, J.
\newblock {\em Assymetric Typography}.
\newblock Faber \& Faber Ltd in co-operation with Cooper \& Beatty, Ltd
  (Toronto), London, 1967.
\newblock Translated by Ruari McLean.

\bibitem{University of Chicago Press}.
\newblock {\em The Chicago Manual of Style}.
\newblock The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, thirteenth edition, 1982.


Graeme McKinstry,                graeme@otago.ac.nz
Computing Services Centre,
University of Otago,
Dunedin, New Zealand.

VANCOUVER (n.)                     
The technical name for one of those huge trucks with whirling brushes on
the bottom used to clean streets.

eijkhout@s41.csrd.uiuc.edu (Victor Eijkhout) (03/15/91)

graeme@otago.ac.nz writes:

>Indenting paragraphs versus space between paragraphs

Controversial subject. Let's hear it.

>A lot of people doing their own typesetting fall into the
>trap of putting space between paragraphs rather than 
>indenting paragraphs.

You're giving your conclusions away by saying 'trap'.

>  This seems to have come about through the influence of
>typewriting, where it is easier (i.e., quicker) to type
>the <return> key twice rather than a <return> and a 
><tab> key.

You may have a point with the typewriter. However, I think
that the reason (if you are correct) is that typewritten
text is mostly ragged-right, and then indentation looks
ugly.

>  TeX and LaTeX, by default, indent paragraphs rather
(plain TeX and LaTeX, but I'll let that go.)
>than insert space between paragraphs, but many users
>go to a lot of trouble to reverse this. (It is actually
>very easy to do, and involves setting 2 commands:
>\parindent and \parskip.)

No, it is rather difficult. Try setting \parskip, and then
forcing only half of that amount around an environment.
Read my article on this subject in TUGboat.

>  Jan Tschichold, one of the most influential typographic
>designers of this century, has this to say on the subject:

But Tschichold is almost exclusively concerned with
book design, and also he's been turning ever more 
radically old-fashioned all his life. He started
very promising.

>  Indentation is technically and aesthetically the
>  best and simplest way to distinguish paragraphs and
>  it would be foolish to regard it as out of
>  date. ...

[...]

>  Extra space between paragraphs should never be used
>  instead of indentation in books and magazine work;
>  it is excusable only in newspapers and cheap
>  pamphlets.

Newspapers? The space savers {\fr par excellence}?

>  The advantage of indention is that it is immediately
>obvious that a new paragraph has started. Vertical spacing,
>on the other hand, needs the previous paragraph before it
>can be decided that a new paragraph has started.

Non-argument. You can only see that something is indented by
comparing it to the previous line (and you didn't want this
for vspacing), or to the next, which is even worse because
now your looking up and down the page.

>Furthermore, if a paragraph starts at the top of a page, it
>is impossible for the reader to know whether it is a new
>paragraph or the continuation of the previous paragraph.

So how about indenting pars that are top of page, and
using parskip for the rest? I can do that in TeX.

>The same problem occurs when starting a new paragraph after
>a list or other displayed text: it is very difficult to
>know whether it is a new paragraph or a continuation of the
>same paragraph.

I always found this a bogus problem. Indenting after a
list is ugly. Unless the part after the list continues
mid-sentence, this is a natural place to take a breadth
and start a new division of the text. No indentation
necessary.

>  Vertical space is better employed to emphasize headings,
>quotes, lists, etc. Here, it clearly displays the text.
         ^^^^^
But above you mentioned the possibility that a list can be part
of a paragraph. You still want vspace in that case? Or maybe
sometimes you want it, sometimes you don't.
The result is called 'a mess'.

>\bibitem{Tschichold}
>Tschichold, J.
>\newblock {\em Assymetric Typography}.

Where he actually proposes a quite symmetric typography
with all sorts of (to me) bogus arguments.

>Graeme McKinstry,                graeme@otago.ac.nz

Victor.


>VANCOUVER (n.)                     
>The technical name for one of those huge trucks with whirling brushes on
>the bottom used to clean streets.

Is this from 'the Meaning of Liff'?

dorai@tone.rice.edu (Dorai Sitaram) (03/15/91)

In article <1991Mar14.163259.17221@csrd.uiuc.edu> eijkhout@s41.csrd.uiuc.edu (Victor Eijkhout) writes:
>graeme@otago.ac.nz writes:
>
>>Indenting paragraphs versus space between paragraphs
>
>Controversial subject. Let's hear it.

Indeed.  BTW, most of the books (novels) I've seen that were printed
in a certain country [famous for its books!] appear to favor a
do-nothing paragraph separating style, i.e., neither indentation nor
vertical space.

Thus, the only aid to recognizing a new paragraph is that the trailing
line of the previous paragraph doesn't quite make it to the right
margin.  (Ergo, this style will not work for raggedright text, hence I
can't demonstrate it in this article.)

Strangely enough, the result is very pleasing, and not misleading, as
graeme@otago's reasoning might suggest, since care is taken to ensure
that a sentence that finishes a paragraph doesn't ever end on the
right margin.  (In LaTeX, this can be accomplished by ending all
paragraphs with a ~\mbox{ }.)  (A further guideline seems to be never
start a sentence on a page unless it starts a paragraph.)

Incidentally, this style really saves space -- including the tiny
par-indentaton space!

--d

zlsiial@cs.man.ac.uk (03/15/91)

Graeme McKinstry writes that

> Under NO circumstances should paragraphs be both spaced
> and indented.

There are many technical publications in which various
equations and examples appear on lines by themselves
in the middle of paragraphs.  These examples require
space around them, and therefore imply that the style
of the surrounding document include space between paragraphs.

Unfortunately in such cases the space alone is insufficient
for indicating the start of paragraphs, since it often happens
that a paragraph continues after an example.  Regrettably,
such texts are clearer when paragraphs are indented and
spaced.

				A. V. Le Blanc
				ZLSIIAL@uk.ac.mcc.cms

Damian.Cugley@prg.ox.ac.uk (Damian Cugley) (03/15/91)

From:		graeme@otago.ac.nz
Message-Id:	<1991Mar14.170116.152@otago.ac.nz>

> Indenting paragraphs versus space between paragraphs

> A lot of people doing their own typesetting fall into the
> trap of putting space between paragraphs rather than 
> indenting paragraphs.
>   This seems to have come about through the influence of
> typewriting, where it is easier (i.e., quicker) to type
> the <return> key twice rather than a <return> and a 
> <tab> key.

The "rules" for typewritten text are *different* because they use
fixed-width fonts and a limited character set -- just like plain-ASCII
articles.  The blank line between paragraphs arguably helps open up the
page.  As you can see, I use blank lines as separators (if only to be
consistent with all the computer program that rely on this heuristic).

>   TeX and LaTeX, by default, indent paragraphs rather
> than insert space between paragraphs, but many users
> go to a lot of trouble to reverse this.

Actually \parskip for TeX is 0pt plus 1pt -- which stretches horribly on
bad pages.  (It ought either to be 0pt exactly or some positive amount.)

If you want to argue style on the basis of legibility, you might like to
cite some research one way or the other.  My understanding is that there
is almost no evidence one way or the other -- at least not enough to
over-rule the aesthetic sense of the typographer.  (The same applies to
ragged-right vs. justified.)

Beginners should think twice about altering style parameters though.


> Modern typography is all about `form following function',
> i.e., each part of the design has to justify its existence
> in terms of enhancing readability.

I beg to differ.  There is still a role for people with an eye for
beautiful typesetting as well as functional typesetting.  

Presumably the `form over function' people are still puzzled as to why
there is more than one of each sort of font in existance -- if you
already have Times, why bother making Bookman? 


>   Indenting paragraphs is an economical way of signalling the
> start of a new paragraph (and hence new idea). It then
> leaves vertical space to be employed to display text such
> as extracts, lists, etc. 
>   Under NO circumstances should paragraphs be both spaced
> and indented.

I use no paragraph skip when setting "plain text".  A friend of mine
setting his thesis -- with many displayed formulae -- used a 1/2ex
paragraph skip.  He argued that the space on either side of all the
displays and lists meant that the the division into paragraphs was
obscured.  Even though this is Against the Lore, I think it worked OK.

I think that indentation should not be dropped if there are displays
etc. because then it does become difficult to spot new paragraphs.  This
implies that sometimes it might seem appropriate to have both \parindent
and \parskip nonzero.



> \bibitem{Tschichold}
> Tschichold, J.
> \newblock {\em Assymetric Typography}.
> \newblock Faber \& Faber Ltd in co-operation with Cooper \& Beatty, Ltd
>   (Toronto), London, 1967.
> \newblock Translated by Ruari McLean.

BTW, in a plain text article -- such as on USENET -- you might like to
use plain-text formatting conventions rather than obscure LaTeXisms.


---- Damian Cugley -------------------------------- pdc@prg.ox.ac.uk ---
    Computing Laboratory, 11 Keble Rd, Oxford  OX1 3QD  Great Britain   
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jg@prg.ox.ac.uk (Jeremy Gibbons) (03/15/91)

> Presumably the `form over function' [sic] people are still puzzled as to why
> there is more than one of each sort of font in existance -- if you
> already have Times, why bother making Bookman? 

The choice of font is as much one of function as of form. Caslon wouldn't
work for a chatty fanzine, any more than a bouncy sans serif would for the
King James---they put across entirely different messages.

*-----------------------------------------------------------------------*
|  Jeremy Gibbons (jg@uk.ac.oxford.prg)   Funky Monkey Multimedia Corp  |
*-----------------------------------------------------------------------*

eijkhout@s41.csrd.uiuc.edu (Victor Eijkhout) (03/16/91)

dorai@tone.rice.edu (Dorai Sitaram) writes:

>Indeed.  BTW, most of the books (novels) I've seen that were printed
>in a certain country [famous for its books!] appear to favor a

What country is that? Printing started in Germany, but the Italians
were the first to have high quality, the Dutch and the Spanish
have had their period, the French were influential in 
the 19th century, and England has had some good bookprinters
too...

>do-nothing paragraph separating style, i.e., neither indentation nor
>vertical space.
[...]
> (In LaTeX, this can be accomplished by ending all
>paragraphs with a ~\mbox{ }.) 

A somewhat better solution is setting
\parfillskip=1cm plus 1fil
             ^^^ 
             or whatever fixed minimum you want.

Victor.

tim@cstr.ed.ac.uk (Tim Bradshaw) (03/18/91)

>>>>> On 14 Mar 91 05:21:19 GMT, graeme@otago.ac.nz said:

> Indenting paragraphs versus space between paragraphs

> [And a lot of reasons why it's a good thing]

Well yes.  But it's more complex than that isn't it?  In the case
where some document consists just of lots of paragraphs of reasonable
length (i.e. typical work of fiction) then this is a good way to do
things, and certainly I think leaving whitespace between paras looks
horrible for such documents.

But there are documents where this style looks horrid.  For instance,
consider a document where there are many very short paragraphs -- less
than one line.  What you end up with in this case is whole regions of
the page with indentation, or whole regions of the page which have
every other line or so indented.  This looks really nasty I think, and
some other method of marking paragraphs is preferable there.

Actually when I (hand) write letters I just run on paragraphs, marking
them with a pilcrow.  This has precedents in books I've seen.  But TeX
can't do this because of memory constraints. (Please don't post some
obscure hack that gets around this, I'm sure it can be got around, but
it shouldn't need to be obscure to do it!)

--tim