Widow: single line at the bottom of a column and single word at the bottom of a paragraph Orphan: single line at the top of a column Orphans can be avoided by changes in wording or spacing that either remove the line or lengthen it," and “a widow is a "short, paragraph-ending line appearing at the top of a page." Widows should be avoided when possible by changes in wording or spacing that either remove the line or lengthen it. The Chicago Manual of Style states that an orphan is a "short line appearing at the bottom of a page, or a word or part of a word appearing on a line by itself at the end of a paragraph. Orphans fall at the bottom of a column or page, and widows fall at the top of a column or page.” Orphans result in too much white space between paragraphs or at the bottom of a page.”Īdobe InDesign's help page mentions “you can eliminate orphans and widows, words or single lines of text that become separated from the other lines in a paragraph. An orphan can also be a paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page/column. An orphan is a word, part of a word, or very short line that appears by itself at the end of a paragraph. Orphans are single words that are left alone at the end of a paragraph. This interrupts the reader's eye, disrupts the reading process, and can even deter comprehension. Ryan Boudreaux on the TechRepublic site addresses orphans and widows in web design and says ‘widows leave too much white space between paragraphs or at the top of a page. Widow: single line at the top and bottom of a column Orphan: single line at the bottom of a paragraph No matter what their names really are, at least the agreement across the board is that both of these type crimes are still very painful to look at. Names of things do not typically affect what they really are. And as I expected, there are four ways the internet defines these two terms. So I Googled the terms to get a straight answer (SPOILER ALERT: there is none). However, when book designer Shannon Losorelli-Doronio started teaching in the TypeEd program she learned it a different way and remembered them as “an orphan has no past a widow has no future.”Įllery Curran addressed the mix-up on the Opus Design site saying "you can call them whatever you want, maybe widphans or ordows? They are a problem and need to be fixed!" I had originally thought that ‘widows’ were those lonely words on the last line of a paragraph and that ‘orphans’ were the lonely lines of a paragraph at the start or end of a column. So imagine my anxiety when I start saying the word the word ‘orphan.’ Why? Because the two terms ‘orphans’ and ‘widows’ are interchanged from the time to time. Sometimes I’m scared shitless of saying ‘counter’ when I mean ‘bowl,’ and vice versa.* Why? I might get jumped on by the type community for not using the correct terminology.
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