![]() This last characterization is probably the most accurate in terms of global usage-if a designer refers to either a widow or an orphan when looking at a piece of typesetting, another designer will know what is meant regardless of their personal lexicon. I’ve seen other cases where the words orphan and widow are given more-or-less identical definitions in the same publication, thus rendering the words interchangeable. Others say that these are actually orphans, whilst a widow is a single word on its own at the end of a paragraph that can appear anywhere in a run of text. Some say that a widow is the first line of a paragraph isolated on its own at the bottom of a column, while some say it’s a line on its own at the top of the next column or page. ![]() However, when I looked through the numerous sources I was employing to double-check the accuracy of my own definitions I was mightily surprised to discover the discrepancies between definitions of two specific terms: widows and orphans. A measure is a column width, a gutter is the gap between columns, leading (or line feed) is the distance in points from one baseline to another-I could go on, but it will be best, I think, if you read the book (hint hint). Some type terminology is pretty much set in lead (seems more appropriate to say lead rather than stone in the context of this post). ![]() I thought that, after over twenty five years as a designer, I knew what was what. When I started the book I assumed, as one does with any writing project, that there would be difficulties of various sorts along the way, but I didn’t figure on there being any surprises within the “Type Terms” chapter. I recently wrote a book titled Essential Type: An Illustrated Guide to Understanding and Using Fonts.
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