Quote:
Originally Posted by kacir
there is this newfangled thing called hyphenation. You divide words at the end of the line (and indicate the said division by use of a hyphen - hence the name). It greatly reduces uneven spaces between words in a fully justified text with relatively few words on line - such as on a e-book reader screen.
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It's hardly
new fangled (although it might be for ereaders), it's been around for years in graphic design layout programs. It's basically just a dictionary (user customisable in most instances) containing words that should be hyphenated with guidelines as to where the hyphen should fall. It should be a doddle to include this within ereader software.
Incidentally, it isn't just used within justified text (although it does help immensely with avoiding those ugly wide inter-word spaces) but also with aligned left text as well, which helps avoid particularly short lines.
Widow and orphan toggles would be helpful too.
The presentation, control and flow of text in almost all ereaders is still pretty archaic, particularly given the ability of a user to over-ride most ebook settings.