Save the Widows and Orphans! Issue in typography.

Do you leave readers dangling? Words left hanging in line leave readers in the dark. In desktop publishing, 'Widows' and 'orphans' are those words or short phrases at the end or beginning of paragraphs that are left to sit alone at the top or bottom of a column — separated from the rest of the paragraph. 

A common mnemonic is that "an orphan has no past; a widow has no future". Another way is to think of orphans as generally being younger than widows; thus, orphaned lines happen first, at the start of paragraphs (affecting and stranding the first line), and widowed lines happen last, at the end of paragraphs (affecting and stranding the last line). Orphaned lines appear at the "birth" (start) of paragraphs; widowed lines appear at the "death" (end) of paragraphs. Writing guides, such as the Chicago Manual of Style, generally suggest that a manuscript should have no widows and orphans even when avoiding them results in additional space at the bottom of a page or column.

Most full-featured word processors and page layout applications include a paragraph setting (or option) to automatically prevent widows and orphans. When the option is turned on, an orphan is forced to the top of the next page or column; and the line preceding a widow is forced to the next page or column with the last line. This automatic adjustment to a page's layout can be a source of frustration for someone who is unaware of why text is shifted from one page to the next.

On a personal note, I reckon it is also a designer's job to make sure that widow or orphan text do not appear frequently on a publishing layout. Though this is just one of the issue in design in layout and DTP, it still warrants as a 'good to know' for everyone out there in the design industry. Allowing everyone in the field to have a knowledge depth in what they do. 

Article source: Widow and Orphan text

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