diff --git a/pdflib/pdfdevice.py b/pdflib/pdfdevice.py
index 2cc8f37..3a8d154 100644
--- a/pdflib/pdfdevice.py
+++ b/pdflib/pdfdevice.py
@@ -80,8 +80,6 @@ class FigureItem(PageItem):
 ##
 class TextItem(object):
   
-  SPACE_WIDTH = 0.6
-  
   def __init__(self, matrix, font, fontsize, charspace, scaling, text):
     self.matrix = matrix
     self.font = font
@@ -93,7 +91,7 @@ class TextItem(object):
     size = (font.get_ascent() - font.get_descent()) * fontsize
     if not self.font.is_vertical():
       # horizontal text
-      spwidth = font.char_width(32) * self.SPACE_WIDTH # space width
+      spwidth = font.space_width()
       self.direction = 1
       w = 0
       dx = 0
diff --git a/pdflib/pdffont.py b/pdflib/pdffont.py
index d929bf7..bb311f8 100644
--- a/pdflib/pdffont.py
+++ b/pdflib/pdffont.py
@@ -66,6 +66,9 @@ class PDFFont(object):
   def string_width(self, s):
     return sum( self.char_width(cid) for cid in self.decode(s) )
 
+  def space_width(self):
+    return max(self.char_width(32), self.char_width(44), self.char_width(46)) * 0.5
+
 
 # PDFSimpleFont
 class PDFSimpleFont(PDFFont):
@@ -352,3 +355,6 @@ class PDFCIDFont(PDFFont):
       raise PDFUnicodeNotDefined(self.cidcoding, cid)
     chars = unpack('>%dH' % (len(code)/2), code)
     return ''.join( unichr(c) for c in chars )
+
+  def space_width(self):
+    return 0