Timeline for Does hyphenation increase readability?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
18 events
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| Aug 17, 2014 at 19:26 | comment | added | supercat | With certain combinations of text contents, font, and margin settings, there will be no choice but to either accept horrible-looking results or hyphen-break a word. If those parameters can be tweaked, however--especially if the text can be reworded--hyphenation may be far less necessary. Someone doing layout shouldn't rework text without consulting the author, but in some cases it may be worthwhile to work with the author to formulate a text that will lay out nicely. | |
| May 14, 2013 at 7:07 | comment | added | plainclothes | @yakunins Welcome to the wonderful world of typesetting! For your first lesson we'll talk about the close historical ties between hyphenation and justification. | |
| May 13, 2013 at 23:19 | comment | added | yakunins | @plainclothes The question was about hyphenation, not about justification. Did you read your answer? Please, remove the parts about justification (Why justify, How to justify) from the answer. | |
| May 13, 2013 at 15:55 | comment | added | plainclothes | @yakunins hyphenation is not about maxing out the average word count of your page. It has to do with word spacing, the visual perception of word groups, and taming the chaos of a page to assist saccadic eye movement. And what does a blank line have to do with hyphenation? | |
| May 13, 2013 at 14:54 | comment | added | yakunins | Justification is just a tool. This tool lets you put maximum amount of words in a particular page. Where it can be used properly? In newspapers, dictionaries, cheap books. But on the web (where space cost nothing) I prefer blank line between paragraphs, just like on this site or wikipedia. | |
| Nov 30, 2012 at 9:30 | comment | added | e100 | Yes, I did mean to say that there is a quality-practicality tradeoff! | |
| Nov 29, 2012 at 21:07 | comment | added | plainclothes | God be with you if you try that on a 1000 page book! I have done extensive work in the hyphenation dictionary in InDesign (and QXP many moons ago) but hand-placed discretionary hyphens are not a thing for extended texts. | |
| Nov 29, 2012 at 16:11 | vote | accept | Maarten | ||
| Nov 29, 2012 at 13:23 | comment | added | e100 | I think it's also worth noting that there's tunable but automatic hyphenation, and then there's individually and intelligently placing every (discretionary) hyphen yourself. | |
| Nov 28, 2012 at 18:44 | history | edited | plainclothes | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Added lots more detail and references.
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| Nov 28, 2012 at 18:17 | history | edited | plainclothes | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 315 characters in body
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| Nov 28, 2012 at 18:13 | comment | added | plainclothes | The important thing to remember when researching or empirically analyzing or setting justified texts: It's really easy to set really bad justified text. With flush left you don't have to balance the needs of the typeface, point size, measure, and leading to the same critical degree. Study with someone (or read from someone) who knows what they're doing before you justify! | |
| Nov 28, 2012 at 15:16 | comment | added | horatio | I think it is all a matter of taste, it is just that justified text has two competing bad choices: hyphenate or word spacing. Most people seem to agree that word spacing tastes worse. Personally, I have huge problems with hyphenation because I tend to read them as phrasal adjectives, and I wind up with the so-called "garden-path problem." | |
| Nov 27, 2012 at 21:26 | history | edited | plainclothes | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 378 characters in body
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| Nov 27, 2012 at 21:16 | history | edited | plainclothes | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Adding a reference
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| Nov 27, 2012 at 21:04 | comment | added | plainclothes | You have to use your intuition. In long-document software you have the option to set a limit on consecutive hyphens (line-to-line). Two is my usual number simply for presentation reasons -- more than that seems like a visual distraction to me. In newspaper setting, this isn't always possible because the lines are so short. | |
| Nov 27, 2012 at 20:07 | comment | added | Brendon Roberto | One of my professors once told me, as a rule of thumb, hyphenate at most twice per paragraph. I sadly didn't have the forethought to ask him what his source was. | |
| Nov 27, 2012 at 17:52 | history | answered | plainclothes | CC BY-SA 3.0 |