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From: eijkhout@s41.csrd.uiuc.edu (Victor Eijkhout)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: Indentation of paragraphs versus space between pa
Message-ID: <1991Mar14.163259.17221@csrd.uiuc.edu>
Date: 14 Mar 91 16:32:59 GMT
References: <1991Mar14.170116.152@otago.ac.nz>
Sender: news@csrd.uiuc.edu (news)
Organization: UIUC Center for Supercomputing Research and Development
Lines: 108

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'?