Looking at the title, you may be thinking – what?! But although typesetting is much more streamlined today with our fancy word processing software, these phrases will still make appearances every now and again, as they’re still commonly used to refer to areas of typesetting. Though we’re not printing ink with big wooden blocks anymore (well, not me, anyway), this stuff is good to know!
Despite their strange names evoking images of perhaps the worst series of events ever, these widows, runts, orphans and rivers are important considerations for typesetting and formatting, so we’ll discover what they are and how to ensure they are put to good use. And we’ll chuck in some extras too for good measure!
What’s a widow?
Say for example you’re attempting to create a big information pack for your company which will be sent out to prospective investors. In each section, you’re writing to convince them of all the cool things you can do for them, and there are walls and walls of text. A widow in this sense refers to an overhanging line from the end of a paragraph that doesn’t fit properly on the same page, making it look out of place. This can be remedied by changing the font size, lengthening
or shortening the paragraph or otherwise adjusting the layout of the text.
What’s an orphan?
To put it succinctly, the orphan is similar to the widow, but it refers to when the
first line of a paragraph starts at the bottom of the page, meaning that the rest of it has to continue onto the next page. Again, messing with the structure and formatting of the previous paragraph, or even pushing down that initial line with extra white space will allow the document to look more cohesive and improve its aesthetics. In a lot of areas, people will judge a book by its cover so to speak, so it is a good idea to ensure that your writing is strong but also looks the part!
What’s a runt?
A runt can happen anywhere on a page, and refers to the last line of a paragraph ending in a single, lonely word. Usually, runts occur with hyphenated words as many writing programmes will separate the word into pieces. But it can also occur with very long words that get cut off, which for a reader can be very discom-bobulating!
What’s a river?
A river is a noticeable line in the text formed by the gaps inbetween words, which can drift down through paragraphs. Though it can be fun to follow these down through their natural course, it is best practise to match your river placement to the formatting of the text itself – some brand guidelines like long straight rivers for a unified, cleaner appearance of the writing, and others may want something different.
What’s kerning?
Kerning refers to the spacing between letters in a word. Depending on the typeface you’re using, the brand guidelines you’re trying to match or even the format the text will appear in, you may want to alter the kerning to give it a different look – squashing letters closer together to fit more in, or spacing them out to make the final product more easy-to-read.
What’s leading?
Leading is the gap between one line of text and the ones surrounding – above or below. Adjusting the leading can again affect the design itself, most commonly used to differentiate the lines in a big body of text.
Curing formatting issues
You can use tracking to amend the above issues, which is looking at the paragraph as a whole, and then adjusting the spacing between letters, words, sentences and paragraphs. The best approach is to start right from the beginning and address each issue one by one in order, as the fixes will adjust the look of the rest of the text, either solving the problems or creating more for you to address!
Just my type!
There you have it – the most common typesetting issues to watch out for. As you’ll have read, there are many best practises that differ depending on the purpose of the writing, but it’s a good idea to be on the lookout for typesetting issues in general to ensure that your writing doesn’t get let down by avoidable means.
Impish Fen 
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