12-06-2010, 07:43 PM | #1 |
All Around Nice Guy
Posts: 21
Karma: 66666
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: New York City
Device: iPad, iPhone, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle Fire, Nook 1st Gen, Nook Color
|
Widows and Orphans
In Liz Castro's book she says Adobe Digital Editions and the nook support CSS widows and orphans. I've been testing it out and can't seem to get them to work. Am I doing something wrong or do they not support it?
Here's my CSS: Code:
html, body, p { widows: 2 !important; orphans: 2 !important; } Just to be clear, I want to prevent the last two words in a paragraph from breaking. I don't want one word to be all by itself on a line. In case you want to see an example .epub I've attached one below. Please note it's a test file so there may be other things I haven't cleaned up from InDesign's ePub export. But I don't think they should affect things. Just didn't want you to think this is finished quality Thanks in advanced for any help. Dan |
12-06-2010, 08:21 PM | #2 |
reader
Posts: 6,975
Karma: 5183568
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Mississippi, USA
Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Glo HD
|
These refer to the number of lines that can hang at the start or end of a page (a screen's worth of text). So I think you may want 1 rather than 2, and 1 is probably the default. Most of the posts I have seen are on turning them off (set to 0) and this seems to work.
|
12-06-2010, 08:32 PM | #3 |
Resident Curmudgeon
Posts: 73,983
Karma: 128903378
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
|
If I am not mistaken, I think 2 is the default for widows and orphans.
In ADE, widows and orphans do work. I set them to 0. |
12-06-2010, 09:01 PM | #5 |
Wizard
Posts: 1,717
Karma: 3790058
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: NYC
Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Sony 650
|
There are two different meanings of "orphan":
* A paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page/column. * A word, part of a word, or very short line that appears by itself at the end of a paragraph. Orphans result in too much white space between paragraphs or at the bottom of a page. You are wanting to control the second meaning (words in a line) but it looks like the css orphan property controls the first meaning (lines of a paragraph at the bottom of the page). I don't know if there is a css property for minimum words in a line. eP |
12-07-2010, 08:30 AM | #6 |
Wizard
Posts: 1,234
Karma: 3350652
Join Date: Feb 2008
Device: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (300ppi), Samsung Galaxy Book 12
|
You can control the latter by using no-break spans and non-breaking spaces (subject to the H&J algorithm used) on the last two words in all paragraphs.
William |
12-07-2010, 11:59 AM | #7 | |
eBook Enthusiast
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
|
Quote:
|
|
12-07-2010, 01:16 PM | #8 |
Wizard
Posts: 1,717
Karma: 3790058
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: NYC
Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Sony 650
|
That's from the Chicago Manual of Style (c&p from Wikipedia). What do you call a too-short last line in a paragraph?
eP |
12-07-2010, 02:03 PM | #9 |
eBook Enthusiast
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
|
It's honestly never crossed my mind that it had a name . To tell you the truth I don't see any particular issue with a paragraph ending in a line containing a single word.
Last edited by HarryT; 12-07-2010 at 02:05 PM. |
12-07-2010, 02:39 PM | #10 |
Wizard
Posts: 1,717
Karma: 3790058
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: NYC
Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Sony 650
|
well in pbook publishing it's "not allowed." Another old typesetting rule.
When I first started reading on my Sony, I was surprised to see that it adjusted pages for widows and orphans. I could see other people thinking "how come some pages are longer than others?" And to see that people like to adjust their own widow and orphan settings to 0 bears this out. eP |
12-08-2010, 02:08 PM | #11 |
All Around Nice Guy
Posts: 21
Karma: 66666
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: New York City
Device: iPad, iPhone, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle Fire, Nook 1st Gen, Nook Color
|
Thanks for clarifying
Now that I read more about them on HTML Dog, I realize I thought orphans did something different. I thought they were controlling the number of words on a line, not the number of lines on a "page." To me an orphan is a word on it's own line. I guess I'll have to look into another option. Too bad CSS doesn't have a specific setting to handle them
Like elemenoP said, orphans are not allowed in traditional typesetting. It's a sign of bad typography, unless columns are very narrow. Thanks again, Dan |
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Other Fiction Holmes, Mary Jane: The English Orphans. V1. 1 July 2010 | crutledge | BBeB/LRF Books | 0 | 07-01-2010 05:10 PM |
Windows and Orphans? | Catire | ePub | 5 | 06-29-2010 03:25 PM |
Widows and Orphans - Taking Control | Themus | Calibre | 2 | 05-24-2010 09:40 AM |
A question about CSS: widows and orphans | Jellby | ePub | 5 | 08-31-2009 03:54 PM |
Google and the Zombie Army of Orphans | anurag | News | 2 | 03-30-2009 08:19 AM |