Do you know that in typography design, there is a unique term that could ruin your overall design? It is orphan and widow typography. The orphan in typography could be slightly different from the widow, yet both terms will probably cause negative effects that you should avoid.
To cut down the disadvantages due to misplacement of typography, you can use this article as a guide. The materials are provided below. Check it out!
Key takeaways:
The example of orphan and widow typography | Source: TypeED
You might not know that there are terms for widows and orphans in typography design. What are the differences between them?
Also Read : Anatomy of Typography: A Complete Guide to Learn Typography
The comparison of widow and orphan typography | Source: The Futur
It is a term that refers to the last line that is left alone at the beginning of a new page without the support paragraph. Meanwhile, the support paragraph is written on the previous page. This visual will drive the audience to get a lack of understanding of the context and not be pleasing to the eye.
However, it can be fixed by adjusting the leading or line spacing, hyphenation, and manually changing the text box. Leading, also known as line spacing, is a vertical space to separate the characters, which is a crucial element to put the characters straight in line.
Moreover, hyphenation is a technique to add a hyphen to connect and stick the lines together. It would be helpful to lead the audience’s perspective to read the paragraph when the widow typography is left behind.
Then, the text box can be a guide to place each character inline and create a balanced paragraph. This technique is probably more complex since you have to manually move the text box, yet you can adjust it until the widow becomes invisible.
Also Read : Baseline Typography: How to Apply and Fix the Problem
The look of orphan typography | Source: PrintCSS
On the other hand, orphan term in typography refers to the first line, single word, or phrase that is left-behind from the supporting paragraph. It is usually found at the end of the page, while the rest paragraph is placed on the next page.
To fix it, you can adjust the line spacing by customizing the tracking and kerning to loosen or tighten the leading line. Orphan in typography also leans on the column width to optimize readability. It is way better to create a column width of at least 20 up to 60 characters.
According to Cutting Edge PR, more than 20% of readers won’t read long body text, which is written in more than 60 characters. What’s more, more than 85% of readers state that too short a line that is less than 20 characters, hardly understands the full context.
You should consider the paragraph length, which is at least 45 characters and a maximum of 75 characters. Then, adjust the margin to justify alignment to create a balanced text position. However, you are still allowed to use left alignment.
It is wise to adjust the alignment since it could bring another issue. For instance, justified alignment will probably create river typography. Furthermore, left alignment creates a wide whitespace on the right side that will make the orphan in typography more visible.
Also Read : 13 Types of Graphic Design to Elevate Stunning Ideas
Due to the unbalanced design visual, both widow and orphan typography definitely would be the designers’ enemy. They obviously will ruin the aesthetic and would influence user experience since the audience will fail to focus on the highlight. The audience will encounter an awkward design visual that won’t be sophisticated.
What’s more, the readability will be affected, which will lead to a misunderstanding of the content. Thus, the design that must convey the message and have to be delivered to the audience will run into failure.
The visualization of messy typography because of widow and orphan typography | Source: Design Shack
Also Read : Design with Emotion: The Art of Expressive Typography
Typography design is not only creating captivating graphic design visuals with unique fonts, but it is also considered to be a challenge for designers. To convey the message to the audience, you have to understand the rules of widow and orphan in terms of typography.
But which is more negative between orphan vs widow typography? Both aspects are fatal for graphic design. If you’re unaware of both aspects, you will struggle to create a balanced and valuable design look. To avoid the negative effect, adjust the column width, hyphenation, consider the paragraph length, and customize the text box. Moreover, you can use unique typography to modify the design and avoid widow and orphan in typography. Browse the fonts only on Zarma Type since they provide complete font options to practice your knowledge. Let’s hunt the font on Zarma Type for as little as $1 with an unlimited blog usage license!
