Should I have spaces between paragraphs or paragraph indents?

Forum|Forum|15 years ago
July 23, 2010
3 replies
38662 views

I am creating a pdf interactive document/ebook, and am wondering whether to use a space between paragraphs or use indents. Is there a standard?

This topic has been closed for replies.

J

Jeffrey_Smith

Community Expert

I think the issue here is how indents and spaces pertain to text flow in an ebook (based on the OP's recent postings). And with that comes other factors to consider, such as Kindle's automatic insertion of paragraph indents, and a device-controlled font size for viewing, and Indesign's paragraph style conversion to css during epub creation, plus many more factors...

Peter Spier

Community Expert

I recently fininished a piece in which I used both indents and spacing. The indents were used for most paragraphs, but spaces were added between major sections of the essay to help set them apart (there were no headings). The first paragraph following the space was set without an indent.

Mr. Met

Inspiring

The more important issue is how the text sits on a grid. Is it visually appealing? Are baselines aligned? Does the page have visual continuity? There's a little more to it than indent or space. Having said that, look at any magazine and indents rule the day. A space after a paragraph is a sure way to end up with 3 columns of text and none of the baselines line up. Especially if there are heads, subheads, pull quotes, etc.

N

newToAS3

Inspiring

I totally agree with Mr. Met. Everybody should consider the baseline grid while thinking its projects. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of people that don't even know they exist.

@Peter, you know you can create as many paragraph styles as you may want or need. It's totally up to you. But skipping lines sometimes is the easier and faster way to go in small projects. But I would avoid using it in the big ones.

Scott Falkner

Community Expert

It is entirely up to you. Use one or the other, but not both. If you are using paragraph Styles it is easy to make a global change and see which reads better. Generally, I prefer spaces to indents. The space should be either one line of lead (i.e. equal to the paragraph’s leading value) or half a line of lead if one full line looks to large.

N

newToAS3

Inspiring

Well, if you want another oppinion, I think you should go with indents. Why? Because you can change them latter (make them bigger, smaller or even get rid of them in seconds).

In the end, yes, it's up to you but I don't see why someone whould chose to "skip" lines in this case.

Scott Falkner

Community Expert

newToAS3 wrote:
Well, if you want another oppinion, I think you should go with indents. Why? Because you can change them latter (make them bigger, smaller or even get rid of them in seconds).
In the end, yes, it's up to you but I don't see why someone whould chose to "skip" lines in this case.

Excellent example.

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