is a German typographical term for the insertion of inappropriate spaces before a punctuation mark. Its counterpart is , the incorrect omission of a space after punctuation marks. Etymology is derived as a borrowed word from the English blank. Its antonym combines and ("to clamp"), exchanging the K and P in such a way as to suggest both phonetically and orthographically its relationship and opposite meaning. Both are internet coinages, dating from 's introduction of on MausNet in 1988 and now widely used on German newsgroups. Usage was once a common practice in Germany due to the conventional approximation there on typewriters of the standard type-setter's spacing rules. These use a variety of different-width spaces and insert a thin space or hair space between words and most punctuation marks. With the introduction of the typewriter and its fixed-width space, English-language typists removed most spaces around punctuation marks, but some other languages' typists, including French and German, did not. Simplistic computer tools typically mishandle by treating them as ordinary whitespace, potentially inserting incorrect linebreaks and wrapping the punctuation mark onto the next line, rendering the text difficult to read. More sophisticated computer tools have French spacing modes which automatically change ed spaces to special typographic spaces such as the (). However, such spacing behaviour is not necessarily replicated for other languages and their typists must manually enter non-breaking spaces. is increasingly discouraged among German-language typists. Examples Illustrating word-wrapping problems: You are here ! I am here , too ! You are just ing ! See also on the German Wikipedia Sentence spacing Punctuation in French French spacing & English spacing – different spacing rules Non-breaking space Quotation mark - According to national conventions, mark may be separated from the quoted text using plenken. References Bedeutung und Herkunft der Wörter Plenk, plenken Was ist 'Plenken'? DIN 5008, Schreib- und Gestaltungsregeln für die Textverarbeitung Typography Punctuation Whitespace 1988 neologisms