Okay, I don’t know if the title description is enough of a description.
I am an avid reader, and read a lot, every day, both regular books, and now on my Kindle (love that thing). In both formats, and even occasionally on the web, I’ll be reading, and my eye will be drawn to a line of empty space in a paragraph. Usually it is diagonal, but sometimes it is vertical, or zig-zags back and forth when scanning down the page.
Does anybody know if there is a word describing this? Or is this something people don’t notice, indicating that I’m just deranged?
They’re called rivers, and they are considered a bad thing in the typesetting world.
Edit (now I know I got in first ) - I’m a copy editor and I spend a long time fiddling with kerning, tracking and hyphenation in order to minimise the appearance of rivers. On screen, where line breaks are dependent on font size and screen dimensions and so are usually not fixed, this can’t be done, and the result is the ugliness you mention.
As a typographer, I know this effect as ‘rivers of white’, caused by poorly set justified text, often seen in newspapers where the column width is so narrow that long words can cause odd spaces. It’s one of the reason that ranged-left typesetting has become more popular as it avoids this problem.
Since I started working on newspapers, URLs have become common in copy, and they can be a nightmare to set without causing rivers. Obviously you can’t hyphenate them; we tend to just insert a line break at a suitable point to get round it.
Thank you… That has been bothering me for a while now, but random googling failed!
I’m even sure that I heard the term at one time, and just forgot it (as I seem to forget so many things nowadays). I’ll be back in a couple years to ask again, I’m sure.
Very intriguing! I’ve often noticed such “rivers” (though’ve never been greatly annoyed by them) but never knew they had a name. I’ve known copy editors to be perfectionistic, but wouldn’t have suspected that level of perfectionism. (Anyone know if Knuth’s famous TeX software attempts de-rivering?)
I actually *like *rivers. (Didn’t know the name for them, thanks!) I can’t really explain why, it’s another way of engaging with the text - almost literally. There’s a sensuousness to discovering a river on a page that connects me with the book on a participatory level. I know it wasn’t intentional, but it somehow draws my attention - in a comfortable way - to the task of typesetting and the notion that this book in my hand was the work of many people, and I appreciate that personal connection. They’re almost an “in-joke” between me and the writers, editors, typesetters, binders, etc. They make me feel like I’m part of an experience, not simply a passive absorber of content.
It’s pretty meta, huh? And probably not a widespread feeling, so I can see why typesetters (who prefer to be invisible) would try to avoid it.
Is “ranged-left” a correct term of art that I (a non-expert) have never heard of? Or did you mean “ragged-right”? A quick intro into typsetting alignment conventions & terms would be most welcome.
I’m not sure if this is a British/US thing (I’m British), but in the UK, both terms are used to mean the same thing, with most people using ‘ranged left’.
Yes, “ranged left” means the same as “ragged right”. In my experience (in England) they’re used pretty much interchangeably, although for text that is not fully justified (i.e. flush to both left and right margins) I tend to use “ragged” (as shorthand for “ragged right”) for copy set to the left margin, and “ranged right” for copy set to the right. Now that I come to read that back it strikes me as pretty confusing, but there you go
“Ragged”: this paragraph is ranged left (or ragged right). This paragraph is ranged left (or ragged right). This paragraph is ranged left (or ragged right). This paragraph is ranged left (or ragged right). This paragraph is ranged left (or ragged right). This paragraph is ranged left (or ragged right). This paragraph is ranged left (or ragged right). This paragraph is ranged left (or ragged right). This paragraph is ranged left (or ragged right). This paragraph is ranged left (or ragged right). This paragraph is ranged left (or ragged right). This paragraph is ranged left (or ragged right). This paragraph is ranged left (or ragged right). This paragraph is ranged left (or ragged right). This paragraph is ranged left (or ragged right). This paragraph is ranged left (or ragged right).
[RIGHT]“Ranged right”: this paragraph is ranged right. You could call it “ragged left” but I don’t tend to hear that used in practice. This paragraph is ranged right. You could call it “ragged left” but I don’t tend to hear that used in practice. This paragraph is ranged right. You could call it “ragged left” but I don’t tend to hear that used in practice. This paragraph is ranged right. You could call it “ragged left” but I don’t tend to hear that used in practice. This paragraph is ranged right. You could call it “ragged left” but I don’t tend to hear that used in practice. This paragraph is ranged right. You could call it “ragged left” but I don’t tend to hear that used in practice. This paragraph is ranged right. You could call it “ragged left” but I don’t tend to hear that used in practice. This paragraph is ranged right. You could call it “ragged left” but I don’t tend to hear that used in practice. [/RIGHT]
Justification Justified = the text is flush with both the left and right margins, popular in books and newspapers Ranged left/left aligned/ragged right = the text is flush with the left margin and white space of varying length on the right, popular in brochures Ranged right/right aligned/ragged left = the reverse, used normally for only small pull-out paragraphs, photo captions and the like
Centred = each line of text in a paragraph is centred on the middle point in a column, with white space of varying length on either side, very traditional, used mostly in headings rather than long passages of copy
Letterspacing Kerning = the adjustment of space between individual letters, applied when two awkward shaped characters create an odd space Tracking = the adjustment of space between groups of words, used aesthetically at the whim of designers, generally to tighten letter spacing in some sans serif fonts (designers wouldn’t normally ever ADD space in lowercase type as it looks rubbish).
Type families Typeface = a family of fonts (e.g. ‘Arial’) Font = an individual member of a typeface (e.g. ‘Arial Bold’)
Leading = the space between lines of text (a hangover from the days of metal typesetting, when the space between lines was added by a strip of lead).
And widows and orphans. The problem is that nobody can agree on which is which any more.
In my office “widow” tends to be applied to any word left on its own on the last line of a paragraph, or a single line at the beginning or end of a paragraph that is left on a separate page from the rest of the paragraph.
Traditionally, “orphan” refers to the first line of a paragraph stranded at the bottom of a page, “widow” to the last line of a paragraph stranded at the top of a page. As for the case of a single word left at the bottom of a paragraph in the middle of a page, according to Wikipedia that’s an orphan, although common sense would call it a widow.
Either way, they are to be hunted down with extreme prejudice when subbing copy.
Wow, I forgot people cared about this stuff anymore. Certainly not those pamphlets they call newspapers and magazines these days.
Colophon, to demonstrate typesetting styles in resizeable displays, you should insert hard line breaks, or at least not use repeating patterns. Your ranging right example came up on my browser page with all but the first and last lines perfectly aligned on the right hand side.
I’ve heard widows and orpans used synonomously for not only words, but a single paragraph left on a page. I don’t remember all the jargon used to describe the various related issues, but they included preferences for starting chapters on the left or right hand pages, breaking paragraphs or lines across pages, hyphenation, and so many more.
My specialty was kerning, undercutting, and proportional spacing. Limitations in spacing could lead to rivers. Having just two space sizes available would make the problem worse when they were used for distributed spacing. I was working with rather primitive computers back then, and we only employed the simplest techniques to eliminate verticalish rivers. I imagine now analysis of whole pages of formatted text eliminate pattern artifacts in spacing and physical word length.
Isn’t font specific to the size, as well? I was under the impression that, in typesetting terminology, “12pt Arial Bold” would be a font, and “18pt Arial Bold” would be another.
Oh, so it’s pronounced “ledding,” not “leeding.” I had assumed it was named for coming above a line of text, and hence “leading” it.
That’s a product of justification
and (usually) smaller columns. The lexicographical
alternative would be to do
something like the green line
above, which is generally con-
sidered worse.
) - I’m a copy editor and I spend a long time fiddling with kerning, tracking and hyphenation in order to minimise the appearance of rivers. On screen, where line breaks are dependent on font size and screen dimensions and so are usually not fixed, this can’t be done, and the result is the ugliness you mention.
