Formatter is ignoring the spaces after the %, it considering any letter after % for conversion. Its always possible to use % in normal text while displaying.

I feel even if any one uses any char after % which doesn't represent any conversion, it should ignore it rather to throw an exception. It can display it as it is.

The following code , console out of the above context.
code:-
import java.util.*;
public class Test11 {
    public static void main(String[] arg){
Formatter formatter = new Formatter(System.out);
formatter.format(" %d is the 90 % of x",900);
    }

}
console:-
vishalb:/home/vv145429/tiger/src/formating/bugs 209 % javac -source 1.5 Test11.java
vishalb:/home/vv145429/tiger/src/formating/bugs 210 % java Test11
 900 is the 90 Exception in thread "main" java.util.MissingFormatArgumentException: Format specifier ' o'
at java.util.Formatter.format(Formatter.java:2164)
at java.util.Formatter.format(Formatter.java:2100)
at Test11.main(Test11.java:5)
vishalb:/home/vv145429/tiger/src/formating/bugs 211 %