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Widows and orphans

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where a single source may be published in different formats, with the viewer's expectation of viewing content in different sizes and resolutions, the paragraph settings automatically prevent widows and orphans. Manual overrides, such as inserted empty lines or extra spaces, can cause the insertion of a white space into the middle of pages.
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An orphan line is more easily deleted, either by inserting a blank line or by forcing a page break to push the orphan line onto the next page, to be part of the paragraph to which the orphan belongs. Similarly, an orphan word at the end of a paragraph can be relocated by forcing one or more words
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Most full-feature word processors and page layout applications include an automatic paragraph setting that prevents widows and orphans; thus, an orphan is forced to the top of the next page or column; and the text line preceding a widow is forced to the next page or column. In technical writing,
231:. Sometimes it can also be useful to add non-breaking spaces to the first two (or few) short words of a paragraph to avoid having a single orphaned word placed to the left or right of a picture or table, while the remainder of the text (with longer words) would only appear after the table. 135:
A word, part of a word, or a very short line that appears by itself at the end of a paragraph. Mnemonically still "alone at the bottom", just this time at the bottom of a paragraph. Orphans of this type give the impression of too much white space between
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are single lines of text from a paragraph that dangle at either the beginning or end of a block of text, or form a very short final line at the end of a paragraph. When split across pages, they occur at either the head or foot of a page (or
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A paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page or column, thus separated from the rest of the text. Mnemonically, an orphan is "alone at the bottom" (of the family tree but, in this case, of the
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A paragraph-ending line that falls at the beginning of the following page or column, thus separated from the rest of the text. Mnemonically, a widow is "alone at the top" (of the family tree but, in this case, of the
267:, 15th ed., 2003, University of Chicago Press. 3.11 Overall appearance: "A page should not begin with the last line of a paragraph unless it is full measure and should not end with the first line of a new paragraph." 279:, 16th ed., 2011, University of Chicago Press. 2.113: "A page should not begin with the last line of a paragraph unless it is full measure. (A page can, however, end with the first line of a new paragraph.)" 215:
from the preceding text line into the paragraph line of the orphan. In web-publishing, this is typically accomplished by concatenating the words in question with a
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should have neither widows nor orphans, even if their elimination leaves blank space at the bottom of the page or of the column of text. The 16th edition of
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For the purposes of this article, the following meanings are given to the terms. Some sources have these reversed due to a lack of industry standardization.
863: 1237: 160:(2011) proposes the acceptability that the layout of some pages can conclude with the first line of a new paragraph at the foot of the page. 105:, which varying sources also call a widow or orphan, is a very short ending to a paragraph occupying only a small portion of its own line. 307: 20: 1232: 1117: 1079: 1263: 332: 148: 843: 489: 1247: 1064: 735: 672: 377: 300: 32: 692: 415: 28: 24: 1167: 667: 662: 575: 562: 395: 228: 959: 600: 454: 8: 1302: 1281: 1242: 1155: 1049: 904: 882: 872: 740: 347: 337: 293: 98: 1205: 1132: 1112: 1102: 1074: 1044: 1004: 631: 494: 479: 410: 216: 1127: 1150: 1069: 1024: 954: 425: 1036: 989: 828: 775: 636: 446: 1172: 1059: 1054: 974: 942: 833: 570: 372: 1177: 1122: 999: 802: 626: 580: 514: 484: 352: 207: 193: 1296: 969: 937: 927: 807: 177:
Adjusting the spacing between words to produce tighter or looser paragraphs;
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Regarding page design and the layout of the text, the 15th edition of
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The very short final line of a paragraph composed of a single word
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In typography, an isolated line of text starting/ending a page
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The first line of a paragraph beginning at the end of a page
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Subtle scaling of the page without distorting the letters;
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The last line of a paragraph continuing on to a new page
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Forcing a page break early, producing a shorter page;
1294: 180:Adjusting the hyphenation within the paragraph; 163:The techniques for eliminating widows include: 1238:Intellectual property protection of typefaces 301: 780: 308: 294: 1264:Punctuation and other typographic symbols 37: 132:Runt (sometimes called widow or orphan) 1295: 289: 203:to the text (usual in magazines); and 189:Rewriting a portion of the paragraph; 219:and, if available, by utilizing the 13: 183:Adjusting the margins of the page; 174:, the space between lines of text; 14: 1314: 253:The Elements of Typographic Style 1277: 1276: 152:(2003) indicates that an edited 125:Orphan (sometimes called widow) 118:Widow (sometimes called orphan) 21:Masonic Widows and Orphans Home 315: 270: 258: 245: 108: 1: 1233:History of Western typography 238: 141: 1080:traditional point-size names 7: 333:Canons of page construction 277:The Chicago Manual of Style 265:The Chicago Manual of Style 158:The Chicago Manual of Style 149:The Chicago Manual of Style 10: 1319: 18: 1272: 1256: 1188: 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965:Lorem ipsum 960:Letterpress 920:Typesetting 860:Punctuation 824:Record type 795:Gaelic type 783:Schwabacher 673:Body height 538:Letter case 406:Line length 192:Reduce the 136:paragraphs. 109:Definitions 86:typesetting 1303:Typography 1196:Penmanship 1168:East Asian 1010:Type color 943:monospaced 900:Interpunct 893:minus sign 817:Specialist 753:Sans-serif 746:slab serif 723:Roman type 678:Cap height 642:Thin space 601:Whitespace 553:Title case 548:Snake case 543:Small caps 528:Camel case 460:Diacritics 368:Pull quote 363:Pagination 358:Paper size 317:Typography 239:References 201:pull quote 154:manuscript 142:Guidelines 693:Overshoot 688:Mean line 683:Descender 596:Underline 438:Character 416:Runaround 396:Alignment 388:Paragraph 206:Adding a 199:Adding a 1297:Category 1282:Category 1161:PT Fonts 1156:Cyrillic 1020:Typeface 938:computer 839:fat face 712:Typeface 698:x-height 668:Baseline 663:Ascender 523:All caps 485:Rotation 480:Ligature 475:Ink trap 221:orphans: 1108:Hinting 985:Pangram 803:Insular 776:Rotunda 771:Fraktur 736:Antiqua 622:Kerning 591:Oblique 586:Italics 533:Initial 465:Dingbat 455:Counter 401:Leading 225:widows: 172:leading 94:orphans 1151:Arabic 1050:Cicero 888:Hyphen 873:Bullet 834:script 808:Uncial 741:Didone 505:Tittle 348:Margin 338:Column 129:page). 122:page). 99:column 90:widows 78:orphan 59:orphan 31:, and 1075:Point 1045:Agate 905:Space 731:Serif 632:Pitch 495:Swash 470:Glyph 411:River 74:widow 72:is a 63:widow 46:is a 1173:Thai 1087:Twip 1070:Pica 1025:list 1005:Sort 933:Font 878:Dash 864:List 576:Bold 426:runt 325:Page 223:and 103:runt 92:and 48:runt 84:In 1299:: 1060:En 1055:Em 88:, 80:). 65:). 27:, 23:, 866:) 862:( 309:e 302:t 295:v 50:. 35:.

Index

Masonic Widows and Orphans Home
Widow-and-orphan stock
Widow (disambiguation)
Orphan (disambiguation)

typesetting
column
The Chicago Manual of Style
manuscript
leading
letter-spacing
pull quote
floating block
non-breaking space
Cascading Style Sheets
v
t
e
Typography
Page
Canons of page construction
Column
Even working
Margin
Page numbering
Paper size
Pagination
Pull quote
Recto and verso
Intentionally blank page

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