Re: [Groff] holistic widow elimination

[Peter Schaffter]

Hi.

On Sat, Jan 07, 2012, Pierre-Jean wrote:

> Dave Kemper <address@hidden> wrote:
> > In professionally typeset novels, when a page is shortened by
> > one line to eliminate a widow on the following page, bottom-line
> > alignment is handled in one of two ways (at least, in the novels
> > where I've been able to figure out their trick):
> >
> >  - the leading (aka line spacing) of the page is increased
> >    slightly, or
> >  - the facing page (whether preceding or following) is also
> >    shortened by one line.

Weighing in on this issue, I have to say that in my thirty+ years of
typesetting, never has changing the leading of continuous prose (aka
running text) been considered acceptable.  In fact, it's impossible
for me to imagine a situation where it would even be useful.  If the
text is unbroken by headings, space between paragraphs, or other
interpolations, adding or subtracting lines to fix orphans or widows
may increase or decrease the amount of text on a page, but doesn't
alter the number of lines that fit on it.

In documents or books where running text does get interrupted, it
has always been standard practice to balance the whitespace around
the disrupting elements in order to achieve properly aligned bottom
margins.  Changing the leading of running text is a no-no.

> That means that the vertical unit of a page is the line spacing,
> and if, for example, you add space before and after titles, you
> should take care that the width of the title plus the extra
> spaces is proportionnal to an amount of lines.

Precisely.  By the way, did you mean the "depth of the title" (not
"width")?  I'm assuming so.

I included in the mom macros a utility, .SHIM, which ensures that
the line of output text immediately following .SHIM lands squarely
on the next available valid baseline.  A valid baseline is one on
which running text would normally fall, assuming an uninterrupted
page of text.  It's a simple way of taking care that "...the depth
of the title plus the extra spaces is proportionnal to an amount of
lines."  .SHIM gets used behind-the-scenes to balance the whitespace
around document titles, heads, subheads, sub-subheads, cited
material, etc., but it can be invoked manually at any time.

> So, dealing with orphans by changing the line spacing, is just
> a "no other choice" solution. You should prefer dealing with
> interword and interletter spaces.

Correct.  The shortening or lengthening of paragraphs to avoid
widows and orphans requires the skillful manipulation of
letter- and word-spacing on a line-by-line basis, not an overall
change of leading that merely expands or contracts the depth of the
text.

Would that the process could be automated, but I have yet to be
shown that it can.  Typography is still, after all these years,
an art that requires a good eye, a deft hand, and human judgment.
 
-- 
Peter Schaffter

Author of The Binbrook Caucus
http://www.schaffter.ca