Certain letters have a long history of not liking each other very much, so they don’t like to get very close. Kerning refers to the space in between individual letters within a word. Usually seen in headlines or within the word mark of a logo, poor kerning can completely ruin a layout and cause it to say something drastically different than what is intended. However, if this isn’t an option, it can sometimes require drastic measures, such as rewriting copy, to get an orphan back into the company of its caring family.Īnd now we come to the most sneaky villain of typography that all designers love to hate. After all, they’re still growing and can really pack away the vittles.ĭepending on the constraints of a layout, orphans can be as simple to take care of as extending the length of the first column to make room. Orphans can require a bit more work to take care of than widows. An orphan occurs when a paragraph of copy doesn’t quite fit completely in one column of text and the very last line flows over into the next column. Less common than widows are the dreaded orphans. After all, we all know that two is the loneliest number since the number one. Some designers even go so far as to not to have only two short words alone on the last line. We much prefer to pull them back up with the rest of their family or to push a few more words down onto the last line with them so they aren’t quite so lonely. Also, they leave large, awkward blank spaces between paragraphs and make our layouts feel less balanced and cohesive. Those poor little words are left barely hanging on to the end of the paragraph, out in the cold, with no one to keep them company. Often, when laying out a block of text, a paragraph will by default end up with one single word left stranded all by it’s lonesome on the last line of the paragraph. What we’re talking about is how a paragraph of text flows within a column. We all care deeply for everyone in need and make sure to call our Grandmas on a regular basis. If you stroll through the studio area of an advertising firm, you might hear an Art Director holler out “Gah! I hate widows!” or you might hear a Creative Director tell a Graphic designer “That layout looks nice, but make sure you kill those widows.” Don’t worry, we’re not heartless jerks.
Below is a bit of a primer for understanding a designer when they start to rant about how bad the type looks in a magazine ad. With terms like widows and orphans, rivers, and kerning, it can sound more like we’re talking about social work or geography not how text has been laid out on a page. However, many of these details that are so important to us are what takes a layout from being just okay to feeling finished and professional.Īn area that’s particularly precious to designers is the practice setting of type or Typography. Sometimes it can seem like we speak a completely different language and we obsess over things that nobody else would ever notice, at least not consciously. Designers are a bit of a strange breed believe us, we know.