Spacing around "Western" names/words?

[zhouhana]

I doubt this really matters in the real world, but it would be fun to know the rule if there is one: Should a word written in Latin letters be separated from the rest of a Chinese sentence with spaces? In other words, should it be

"我叫Johanna……" or "我叫 Johanna ……"?

[yonglin]

No spaces. The most common context in which you'll see words in Latin letters incorporated in Chinese text is probably in the science/technology area (so you can search for such texts for examples). Spaces are never used.

[zhouhana]

Thanks. That's just the kind of texts I'm working with right now.

[WestTexas]

The most common context in which you'll see words in Latin letters incorporated in Chinese text is probably in the science/technology area

that, and hold不住

[skylee]

^{Spaces are never used.}

^{I don't know about this. I don't think there is a rule like this. It makes no difference to me at all. I use spaces if it looks better.}

[tooironic]

It should be pointed out that spaces - or should I say, multiple spaces - are sometimes used instead of full-stops or commas, especially in signs, subtitles, that kinda thing. As skylee points out, there's no exact rule, since the whole idea of "spaces" is arguably a European one and punctuation in Chinese is a fairly modern development.

[zhouhana]

I found this article on the subject: http://www.hillslearning.com/2011/06/15/writing-in-chinese-spacing/

[skylee]

however, the suggested rules remain in place more for aesthetic reasons than any other.

Yes, that is why I said "I use spaces if it looks better".

[DespikableMi]

There isn't a standard yet. Look at this, it might help.

至今没有规范，只有习惯。

InDesign、Microsoft Word 等对中文与西文（这里我们就用“西文”来泛指用空格分词的外文了）混合排版支持较好的软件，都默认增大汉字和西文的间距，而且这个间距的大小基本不受是否预先输入了空格的影响。InDesign 的默认设置是 1/4 的全角空格宽度，也就是约等于一个半角空格。

但大多数情况下，我们没有这样专业排版软件的支持，只能手动控制（基本上是纯文本）。这种时候，比较在意字体排印（typography）的团队或个人往往都在操作系统界面或网站中的汉字和西文之间插入一个半角空格。

包括许多：

• 公司：苹果公司、微软、Google、Adobe……
  
• 博客：Apple4us、Type is Beautiful、爱范儿……
  
• 个人：@刘昕、@江疆……
  

但这些确实是少数（绝对的少数）。大多数人都不/不喜欢/不愿意在汉字和西文之间加空格。毕竟，加空格要考虑的东西太多了，而且加空格也会带来一些问题（见后面给出的在 public-html-ig-zh@w3.org 进行的讨论）。

总的来说，“空格派”的习惯就是在汉字和西文之间打一个半角空格。但因为“西文”有一些让人不好决定的特例，他们使用空格的方式是有一点差异的。

根据一般都加空格到一般不加空格的顺序，大致可以排出来：

• 内部有空格的西文短语（iPod touch）
  
• 独立的西文单词（iPhone）
  
• 全大写字母的西文缩写（HTML）
  
• 单个的西文字母（X）
  
• 阿拉伯数字（7）和西文标点（/）
  

西文和汉字和标点三者相遇的时候问题更复杂（汗……“三体”），大家的习惯也有差异。

知乎

[yialanliu]

I think spaces are never used is correct when taken into consideration that everything should be autospaced on the word processor. For instance, when writing chinese characters, you use the space bar to convert the pinyin you typed to Chinese, but there is no actual space even though you pressed the space bar. After you type periods/commas you get the automatic spaces that accompany it and shouldn't be adding more spaces. Hence I think it's correct when taken into this context.