This is very insightful. I am not a professional typographer but to my eye, the problem is really with the period. It should really be treated as a modification to the previous character rather than a separate full-stop character. This way the spacing would work as designed.
\setuppapersize[A8]
\starttext
Mr. \vrule John Doe
Mr\kern-.1em.~\vrule John Doe
\setuplanguage [en] [spacing=packed]
Mr. \vrule John Doe
Mr\kern-.1em.~\vrule John Doe
\stoptext
Maybe this would be better handled with a macro.
Clyde
From: Wolfgang Schuster [mailto:wolfgang.schuster.lists@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2018 11:54 AM
To: mailing list for ConTeXt users; Clyde Johnston
Subject: Re: [NTG-context] Typesetting abbreviations
You can disable the bigger space at the end of a sentence with the spacing key from \setuplanguage but as you can see from the example below ~ creates a normal space.
\setuppapersize[A8]
\starttext
Mr. \vrule John Doe
Mr.~\vrule John Doe
Mr.\nobreakspace\vrule John Doe
Mr.\ \vrule John Doe
Mr.\narrownobreakspace\vrule John Doe
\blank
Mr. \vrule John Doe
\setuplanguage [en] [spacing=packed]
Mr. \vrule John Doe
\stoptext
Wolfgang
Clyde Johnston schrieb am 27.10.18 um 23:04:
What is the correct way to typeset an abbreviation in ConTeXt? The space after the full stop seems too big and if I use \thinspace, I cannot use ties.
No command – space is too big
\starttext
Mr. John Doe
\stoptext
With tie – space is too big
\starttext
Mr.~John Doe
\stoptext
With \thinspace – looks right except at an end of line
\starttext
Mr.\thinspace John Doe
\stoptext
Any suggestions are welcome!
Thanks,
Clyde
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