Widows and orphans Information & Widows and orphans Links at HealthHaven.com

An illustration of a widowed line, highlighted in yellow, appearing at the top of a page.

In typesetting, widows and orphans are words or short lines at the beginning or end of a paragraph, which are left dangling at the top or bottom of a column, separated from the rest of the paragraph. There is some disagreement about the definitions of widow and orphan; what one source calls a widow the other calls an orphan^[1]^[2]. The Chicago Manual of Style uses these definitions^[2]:

Widow

A paragraph-ending line that falls at the beginning of the following page/column, thus separated from the remainder of the text.

Orphan

A paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page/column.
A word, part of a word, or very short line that appears by itself at the end of a paragraph. Orphans result in too much white space between paragraphs or at the bottom of a page.

[edit] Examples

Widow end of paragraph at the top of a page:

Page 1	Page 2
xxxxx xxx xxxxx. Xxx x xxxxxx xxx	a widowed line.
xxxx xx xxxxx xx xxxxxxxxx, xxx xx
xxxxx, x xxxx xxxxxxxx xxx xxxxxx.	Xxx xxxx xx xxxxx x xxxxx xxxxx xx x
Xxxx xx xx xxxx xxxx xxxxxxx xx xx	xxxxx, x xxxx xxxxx. Xxxx xxxxxx xxx

Orphaned word ending a paragraph:

Page

xxxx xx xxxxx xx xxxxxxxxx, xxx xx xxxx xxx. xxx xxx xxxxxx

xxx xxxx xxx xxx xxxx x xxxx xxx xxx, xxx xxxxx xxx xxxxxx

orphan.

Orphan line of paragraph at the bottom of a page:

Page 1	Page 2
xx xxxxxxxxx xx xxxx xxx. Xxx xxxx	xxxx, xxxx xx xxxxxxxxx xxxx xxx
xxxxx xx xxxxxx xx xxxxxxxxxx, xxx	xxxxxxxxx xx x xxxx xxxxx xx xxxxx.
xx xxxxxx xx xxxxxxx xxxx xx xxxxx.	Xxx xxx xx xxxxx x xxxxx xxxxx xx x
	xxxx xx. Xxxxx xx xxxxxxxx, xxx xx.
An orphan line xx x xxxxx, xxxxxxx	xxxxx, x xxxx xxxxx, xxxx xxxxx xxx

[edit] Remembering the terms

A common mnemonic is that "an orphan has no past; a widow has no future".^[3]

Another way is to think of orphans as generally being younger than widows; thus, orphaned lines happen first, at the start of paragraphs (affecting and stranding the first line), and widowed lines happen last, at the end of paragraphs (affecting and stranding the last line). Orphaned lines appear at the "birth" (start) of paragraphs; widowed lines appear at the "death" (end) of paragraphs.

[edit] Guidelines

Writing guides, such as the Chicago Manual of Style, generally suggest that a manuscript should have no widows and orphans even when avoiding them results in additional space at the bottom of a page or column.^[4] 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 hyphenation of words within the paragraph;
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;
Reduce the tracking of the words;
Adding a pull quote to the text (more common for magazines); and
Adding a figure to the text, or resizing an existing figure.

An orphan is cured more easily, by inserting a blank line or forcing a page break to push the orphan line onto the next page to be with the rest of its paragraph. Such a cure may have to be undone if editing the text repositions the automatic page/column break.

Most full-featured word processors and page layout applications include a paragraph setting (or option) to automatically prevent widows and orphans. When the option is turned on, an orphan is forced to the top of the next page or column; and the line preceding a widow is forced to the next page or column with the last line. This automatic adjustment to a page's layout can be a source of frustration for someone who is unaware of why text is shifted from one page to the next.

[edit] References

^ Carter, Rob. Day, Ben. Meggs, Philip. Typographic Design: Form and Communication 2nd ed. John Wiley & Sons: 1993. p. 263
^ ^a ^b "Chicago Manual of Style" http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/appA_KeyTerms.html#app01-widow
^ Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style. 3rd ed. Hartley and Marks Publishers: 2004. pp. 43-44 ISBN 0881792063
^ Chicago Manual of Style, 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."

[0] Carter, Rob. Day, Ben. Meggs, Philip. Typographic Design: Form and Communication 2nd ed. John Wiley & Sons: 1993. p. 263

[chicagomanualofstyle.org-1] "Chicago Manual of Style" http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/appA_KeyTerms.html#app01-widow

[2] Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style. 3rd ed. Hartley and Marks Publishers: 2004. pp. 43-44 ISBN 0881792063

[3] Chicago Manual of Style, 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."

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Contents

[edit] Examples

[edit] Remembering the terms

[edit] Guidelines

[edit] References