Paragraphs are not typically separated by vertical whitespace as in most Web browsers but by their first line being indented about three characters. Chronological or thematic breaks are denoted by vertical whitespace between paragraphs, anywhere from one line's worth to a couple of centimeters. If the thematic break has been large, it gets a lot of whitespace and the first line of the next paragraph is not indented. If the thematic break is small, it gets only a line of whitespace and the first line of the next paragraph is indented. The English Patient is not an easy book to read in paperback.
Users can set up their browsers to format documents however they like.
Besides, we've been thinking about coming out with style sheets for several years now. Less than a year after the Web emerged as a consumer service, the crippled nature of HTML 2.0 lead to a Tower of Babel. Scientists added hyperlink anchors to TeX so that they could transmit formulae and view their documents with custom browsers. Document experts escaped into Adobe's PDF format. Netscape added private extensions HTML to facilitate graphic design and advertising so now one can't look at most Web sites without using the Netscape browser.