Spaces in image filenames

[AdieB]

I have found many references stating that you should not have spaces in image filenames. I would imagine that it is not good for SEO, but haven't been able to find out if that is the actual reason. I have images with spaces on my site and all appears to work well??

[Duncan Rounding]

One reason is/was that some servers have/had issues serving filenames with spaces. This is not so common now but it is good practice not use spaces in any filenames.

There may be other reasons also.

[Mike Hughes]

I think the main reason spaces weren't recommended in filenames was because then the user and/or scripts would have to use quotes to specify where the filename started and ended.

eg.

chmod 755 this is a file name with space.jpg

wouldn't work because it'll see the spaces as a delimiter. Whereas this

chmod 755 'this is a file name with space.jpg'

Would work because it now knows what part of the line is the filename. On the whole, I think most systems can cope these days but it's still something I'd avoid using myself (although I do use spaces in filenames on my PC these days).

Mike

[Sean Williams]

I concur with the other guys; IIRC Unix was not able to deal with file names that had spaces (neither was Windows until what, 95 or XP?).
We just treat it as good practice never to have spaces in any filenames of stuff online, just in case in the far distant future we end up on a server that is sensitive.
In any event, an _underscore is no more hassle to put in than a space really.