Subtle changes in typography can impact the way your readers react to your content. Typographic issues—such as widows and orphans, short lines (runts), and white space rivers—break up the text's flow and distract the reader.
Widows and orphans
Widows and orphans refer to one (or more) paragraph lines left by themselves on a page.
A widow is the last line of a paragraph left by itself at the top of a page.
An orphan is the first line of a paragraph left by itself at the bottom of a page.
Widows and orphans in hierarchical content
Widows and orphans can also occur in hierarchical content, such as numbered lists, table of content entries, and index entries. In hierarchical content, an entire paragraph, not just a single line, may be widowed or orphaned by itself.
How do I fix widows and orphans?
To fix widows, you can:
- Use Typefitter's Copyfit slider to tighten or loosen the text.
- Adjust the leading (line spacing).
- Adjust the space above or below paragraphs.
- Edit the text to fit.
- Resize the text frames to shorten or lengthen the spread by a line.
To fix orphans, you can:
- Use Typefitter's Copyfit slider to tighten or loosen the text.
- Control paragraph breaks using Keep Options.
- Resize the text frames to shorten or lengthen the spread by a line.
Short lines
Short lines (runts) happen when the last word, or part of a word, is stranded by itself on a line.
How do I fix short lines?
To fix short lines, you can:
- Use Typefitter's Copyfit slider to tighten or loosen the text.
- Edit the text to shorten or lengthen the last line.
- Change the space before the last word to a nonbreaking space (Type → Insert White Space → [nonbreaking space]).
White space rivers
A white space river is a series of word spaces on consecutive lines of type that align to create the appearance of a crack, or "river", in the text. Rivers can occur regardless of the spacing settings, but are most noticeable when the spaces between words are wide (often caused by full-text justification or monospaced fonts).
How do I fix white space rivers?
To fix white space rivers:
- Use the Copyfit slider to tighten or loosen text to create new line endings.
- Avoid using justified text.
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