 Shortly after the invention of movable type , highly variable spacing was created that could create spaces of any size , and allowed for perfectly even justification . Early American , English , and other European typesetters ' style guides ( also known as printers ' rules ) specified spacing standards that were all essentially identical from the 18th century onwards . These guides — e.g. , Jacobi in the UK ( 1890 ) and MacKellar , Harpel , and De Vinne ( 1866 – 1901 ) in the U.S. — indicated that sentences should be em @-@ spaced , and that words should be 1 / 3 or 1 / 2 em @-@ spaced ( illustration right ) . The relative size of the sentence spacing would vary depending on the size of the word spaces and the justification needs . For most countries , this remained the standard for published work until the 20th century . Yet , even in this period , there were publishing houses ( notably in France ) that used a standard word space between sentences — a technique called French spacing ( illustration below ) . 
