Non-Designer’s Type Book, The, Second Edition

Chapter 16. Paragraph Spacing

The space between paragraphs is an important issue. Well, in the grand scheme of things I suppose it doesn’t rank very high, but in typography it’s important. If you space or indent your paragraphs poorly, your work betrays you as an amateur.

First of all, let’s clear up one thing: either indent your paragraphs or put extra space between them. Don’t do both. The purpose of an indent is to tell the reader that this is a new paragraph. A small indent does that just fine. A small amount of space between the paragraphs does the same. But if you use both an indent and extra spacing, it’s like hitting your reader over the head with a baseball bat because you think he is too stupid to read the clues for a new paragraph. ...