The nuns enforced it with a ruler: two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence. I, along with many others do this instinctively. Why is this considered incorrect/improper in printed materials and on the web?
Answer
Two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence started when the typewriter replaced hand set printing presses. When type was set by hand the spacing was carefully crafted to make sentences and paragraphs easier to read. Typewriters use a monospace font that make it hard to distinguish the end of a sentence without adding the extra space.
Modern fonts are kerned so they don't need the extra space at the end of a sentence. In HTML adding the extra space requires using encoded HTML entities. You can hit the spacebar as many times as you want but you only get one space.
If you're using a monospaced font add the extra space otherwise it's just not necessary.
Monospaced examples:
Double-spaced
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin sagittis urna
ut tellus fringilla malesuada. Fusce rhoncus varius nisi ut interdum. Vivamus
rutrum tempor risus aliquet rutrum. Nunc ornare luctus cursus. Sed lacinia
ultricies mi, eget vestibulum mauris tempus et. Suspendisse pretium pharetra
ornare. In porta rutrum orci at malesuada. Maecenas nisl arcu, commodo nec
aliquet id, pulvinar non dui. Sed ac ultricies odio. Etiam tellus nunc,
lobortis id luctus vel, pulvinar non risus. In sollicitudin eros nec sem
suscipit feugiat accumsan pellentesque nisl.
Single-spaced
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin sagittis urna
ut tellus fringilla malesuada. Fusce rhoncus varius nisi ut interdum. Vivamus
rutrum tempor risus aliquet rutrum. Nunc ornare luctus cursus. Sed lacinia
ultricies mi, eget vestibulum mauris tempus et. Suspendisse pretium pharetra
ornare. In porta rutrum orci at malesuada. Maecenas nisl arcu, commodo nec
aliquet id, pulvinar non dui. Sed ac ultricies odio. Etiam tellus nunc, lobortis
id luctus vel, pulvinar non risus. In sollicitudin eros nec sem suscipit feugiat
accumsan pellentesque nisl.
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