Skip to main content

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Home
  • Learn About Fonts & Typography
  • fy(t)i
  • Fine Typography
  • Hyphenation
All

Fontology

 
All articles:
Using Type Tools:
Font Info:
Situational Typography:
Typographic Reference:
Glyphs & Characters:
Fine Typography:
  • Eight Tips for Type on the Web
  • Creative Indents
  • Discretionary Hyphens
  • Double Spaces Between Sentences…NOT!
  • Emphasis: Italics and Boldface
  • Finessing Typographic Details: Positioning Punctuation
  • Footnotes and Endnotes
  • Good Display Face Part 2
  • Good Text Face Part 1
  • Headline Line Breaks
  • Headlines
  • Word Spacing: How-to
  • Hyphenation
  • Pull Quotes
  • Smart Quotes
  • Think Big: Using Text Fonts at Display Sizes
  • Think Small: Using Display Fonts at Text Sizes
  • Top 5 Type Tips for 2009
  • Top Ten Type Crimes
  • Type Sizes
  • Typographic Hierarchy
  • Underlining Text
  • + More...
Fontology

Hyphenation

Previous Article
Next Article

by Ilene Strizver

Hyphenation
Five hyphenations in a row is unacceptable (top), but can easily be remedied by changing the line breaks (bottom). (Text from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” by Washington Irving.)

The difference between “just okay” typography and professional-level typography is usually in the details – like hyphenation. Often overlooked, proper hyphenation is essential for optimum readability and getting your message across.

Hyphenated words are sometimes considered a necessary evil in typography, but proper hyphenation allows for a better-looking, tighter *rag – or, in the case of justified type, a more natural, even text color. Hyphenation also allows more words to be fit in a line, which saves space.

Most page layout programs allow you to customize the hyphenation and justification (H&J) preferences to your liking. You shouldn’t rely on default settings, which usually need to be adjusted to get the most professional results. It’s essential that you familiarize yourself with the H&J function in order to get your type to look the way you want it to.

Some people prefer to turn off hyphenation entirely, but unless you’re setting extremely wide line lengths, no hyphenation is likely to result in a very loose rag with lots of distracting white space.

Here are some “rules of thumb” to use when checking the hyphenation of typeset copy:

  • Don’t have more than two hyphenations in a row.
  • Don’t have too many hyphenated line endings in a single paragraph, even if they’re not in successive rows. Too many broken words reduces readability.
  • Check the “rag” (the right edge of the text) for any glaring holes, long sloping edges or words that “stick out” unattractively. The ideal rag is a gentle wave that makes slight in-and-out adjustments as the eye travels down the text.
  • In justified text, check that the text looks natural, with an even, readable color and texture. Avoid spacing that looks squeezed or stretched.

If tweaking your H&J settings doesn’t generate the results you want, try manually re-breaking the troublesome lines. If necessary, edit your copy (or have your editor do this) to achieve a better flow. If your layout allows, sometimes adjusting the width of the column ever so slightly will result in fewer breaks.

* See fy(t)i “Rags, Widows & Orphans” for more on “rag”.

Visit our Articles & News Page to read other FYTI Articles.

 

Ilene Strizver
  • Editor’s Note:Ilene Strizver, founder of The Type Studio, is a typographic consultant, designer and writer specializing in all aspects of typographic communication. She conducts Gourmet Typography workshops internationally. Read more about typography in her latest literary effort, Type Rules! The designer's guide to professional typography, 4th edition, published by Wiley & Sons, Inc. This article was commissioned and approved by Monotype Imaging Inc.
Previous Article
Next Article