Should I have spaces between paragraphs or paragraph indents?

newToAS3 wrote: @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.

Was that directed at me? I know all about styles, thanks, and grids, and my projects use both. I created a special "First Paragraph" style without an indent and space before to use as the first paragraph in the intorduction, main body, and conclusion sections of the monograph to be able to set these off without the need for special headings in the work, which the author did not provide. Using indents rather than spacing for the body text helped to keep the copy fit to the page count without having to make the type too small to read and helped with the grid (as pointed out by Mr. Met). Had I chosen to use paragraph spacing throughout I would either have had to reduce the type size or use a condensed font and either abandon the grid or use a full-line space between paragraphs, meaning I'd need even more space or some other device such as a drop cap or separator to clue the reader. Those would be acceptable in a novel, but not terribly appropriate in a mongraph, I think.

The whole point here is that you can do whatever you think looks good. Scott's comment about not using both was, I think, directed at not following a paragraph space with indented type, a sentiment with which I tend to agree, but it isn't a hard and fast rule, not prohibiting the usage of both in the same work altogether. In my opinion, for example, it would still be appropriate to add space before an un-indented heading in a text that uses paragraph indents for body text.