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Widows and orphans
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In typesetting, widow refers to the final line of a paragraph that falls at the top the following page of text, separated from the remainder of the paragraph on the previous page. The term can also be used to refer simply to an uncomfortably short (e.g. a single word or two very short words) final line of a paragraph. [1]
A related term, orphan, refers to the first line of a paragraph appearing on its own at the bottom of a page with the remaining portion of the paragraph appearing on the following page[2]; in other words the first line of the paragraph has been "left behind" by the remaining portion of text.
Note that a widow, by the second definition above, can also fall at the bottom of a page, in the sense that the page ends on a very short line at the end of a paragraph.
One easy way to remember the difference between an orphan and a widow is to remember that orphans "have no past, but a future", while widows "have a past but no future" just as an orphan or widow in life.[3]
Widows are considered sloppy typography and should be avoided. Some techniques for eliminating widows include:
- Forcing a page break early, producing a shorter page;
- Adjusting the leading, the space between lines of text (although such carding or feathering is usually frowned upon);
- Adjusting the spacing between words to produce 'tighter' or 'looser' paragraphs;
- Adjusting the page's margins;
- Subtle scaling of the page, though too much non-uniform scaling can visibly distort the letters;
- Rewriting a portion of the paragraph.
- ^ Carter, Rob. Day, Ben. Meggs, Philip. Typographic Design: Form and Communication 2nd ed. John Wiley & Sons: 1993. p. 263
- ^ Collins English Dictionary 6th edition. Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0-00-710982-2
- ^ Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style. 3rd ed. Hartley and Marks Publishers: 2004. pp. 43-44 ISBN 0881792063
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| Page | Pagination · Recto and verso · Margin · Column · Canons of page construction · Pull quote |  |
| Paragraph | Widows and orphans · Leading · River · Baseline · Median · Alignment · Justification | |
| Character | Ligature · Letter-spacing · Kerning · Majuscule · Minuscule · Initial · x-height · Ascender · Descender · Diacritics · Counter · Subscript and superscript | |
| Style | Serif · Italic · Slab serif · Sans-serif · Blackletter · Script · Dingbat | |
| Punctuation | Hanging punctuation · Hyphenation · Curly quotes · En dash · Em dash | |
| Typesetting | Type design · Type foundry · Movable type · Calligraphy · Phototypesetting · Letterpress · Typeface · Font · Computer font · Point · Pica · Cicero · Agate · Em · En · Lorem ipsum · Hamburgefonts · Punchcutting · Pangram | |
| Digital typography | Font formats · Typesetting software · Character encoding · Rasterization · Hinting | |
