Today we have a quick typography lesson regarding widows, orphans, and rags. Even if you’ve never heard these words associated with typography before, I’m sure you’ve seen them in your reading.
A widow is a single word or short line at the end of a paragraph. Widows create too much white space in between paragraphs and break the reading pattern.
An orphan is one word or short line at the beginning of a paragraph. Although less common than widows, they still affect readability.
A rag refers to the vertical margins of a paragraph or page. Bad rags are uneven and irregular, whereas good rags are in line or have slight differences.
What other typography terms have you heard, but are unclear on their meanings? We’d love to know so we can post about those too!