Editing 1676: Full-Width Justification
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"'''Giving up'''" essentially means not attempting full justification for a particular line, which means it will not fit with the rest of the layout. | "'''Giving up'''" essentially means not attempting full justification for a particular line, which means it will not fit with the rest of the layout. | ||
| − | "'''Letter spacing'''" involves an conspicuously large amount of whitespace between letters, | + | "'''Letter spacing'''" involves an conspicuously large amount of whitespace between letters, suggesting a reading where each letter is a word until the reader recognizes what is intended. This method is in somewhat common use in newspaper and magazine layout, where it is generally known by the name "tracking" (distance between all letters) and "kerning" (distance between particular pairs of letters that fit together easily). However, letter spacing is unavailable for justification purposes in some languages (such as German), in which it is used for emphasis, as italics are in English. |
| − | "'''Hyphenation'''" | + | "'''Hyphenation'''" is confusing because it requires suspended recognition of the full word, confusing the eye into seeing, in the given case, the non-words "deindus" and "trialization". This creates difficulty in both pronouncing and parsing the word. Moreover, the decision of when and where to hyphenate is non-trivial, particularly for automated text layout; for example, breaking a word and leaving only two "orphaned" letters on the following line is generally considered an illegal hyphenation. Nevertheless, hyphenation is a very common means of handling extreme cases. |
| − | "'''Stretching'''" | + | "'''Stretching'''" appears visually unnatural and unfamiliar, and may present technical difficulties in rendering. |
Adding "'''filler'''" words is generally undesirable: in the worst case, the meaning may be unintentionally altered, or the tone might be rendered too informal, as in the given example, and even in the best case, the text becomes less concise and potentially more difficult to read. Automation is also difficult. However, filler words added by a human, especially the original author of the text, are the least visually conspicuous, and may be the most practical solution in some scenarios. | Adding "'''filler'''" words is generally undesirable: in the worst case, the meaning may be unintentionally altered, or the tone might be rendered too informal, as in the given example, and even in the best case, the text becomes less concise and potentially more difficult to read. Automation is also difficult. However, filler words added by a human, especially the original author of the text, are the least visually conspicuous, and may be the most practical solution in some scenarios. | ||
| − | Finally, adding a decorative image like "'''snakes'''" (but not necessarily snakes in particular) to fill the extra | + | Finally, adding a decorative image like "'''snakes'''" (but not necessarily snakes in particular) to fill the extra spaaace is a justification practice of significant historical interest (it was particularly common for illuminated manuscripts in the medieval era and remained prominent until the invention of the printing press) but little modern relevance. There may be a particular absurdity to using a snake as it can be read as a word, such as "the relationship between snake deindustrialization" as would be done similar to a {{w|rebus}}. |
In modern text layout programs, some combination of the above strategies may be used to achieve the most visually consistent effect. For example, in one case, hyphenation might be the best option to split a very long word, while another line might be too long by only one or two letters, in which case the program could apply a very slight degree of extra letter spacing, too small for the average reader to notice. | In modern text layout programs, some combination of the above strategies may be used to achieve the most visually consistent effect. For example, in one case, hyphenation might be the best option to split a very long word, while another line might be too long by only one or two letters, in which case the program could apply a very slight degree of extra letter spacing, too small for the average reader to notice. | ||
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**An {{w|emoji}} snake. | **An {{w|emoji}} snake. | ||
| − | One of the hieroglyphs ([https://codepoints.net/U+13192 U+13192 EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH I009A]) is described in [https://mjn.host.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/egyptian/unicode/tablemain.html source documents] as HORNED VIPER CRAWLING OUT OF ENCLOSURE, so it is literally a snake-building character | + | One of the hieroglyphs ([https://codepoints.net/U+13192 U+13192 EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH I009A]) is described in [https://mjn.host.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/egyptian/unicode/tablemain.html source documents] as HORNED VIPER CRAWLING OUT OF ENCLOSURE, so it is literally a snake-building character. |
| − | + | "Non-breaking" in the title text refers to a similar process as zero-width joiners and no-break HTML and CSS; the whole snake would shift down if it were too wide to fit on a given line. This suggestion would likely be rejected; the Unicode consortium is very specific about which characters are added{{Citation needed}}, and always require a good reason{{Citation needed}} before adding a character or set of characters to the standard. Strange decisions by the consortium have previously been referenced in [[1253: Exoplanet Names]], [[1513: Code Quality]], and [[1525: Emojic 8 Ball]]. | |
| − | "Non-breaking" in the title text refers to a similar process as zero-width joiners and no-break HTML and CSS; the whole snake would shift down if it were too wide to fit on a given line. This suggestion would likely be rejected; the Unicode consortium is very specific about which characters are added | ||
Within an hour or two of this comic being published, a thread on the subject started on the Unicode Consortium’s official Unicode Mailing List. As of two days later, it’s still running. | Within an hour or two of this comic being published, a thread on the subject started on the Unicode Consortium’s official Unicode Mailing List. As of two days later, it’s still running. | ||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
| − | Strategies for full-width justification | + | :Strategies for full-width justification |
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| − | + | :[Below the caption is a column with six boxes, each showing a different "strategy" for justification which is annotated beside it. Here the annotation is written at the top and the text below. The top and bottom of the text is cut of in the middle, but as it can be "read" this is written anyway. Only for hyphenation does an extra word appear at the end. In the last with snakes, a snake is drawn to cover the entire spaaace from the end of between to the right border.] | |
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | between | ||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | + | :Giving up | |
| − | + | ::their famous paper | |
| − | + | ::on the relationship | |
| − | + | ::between | |
| − | deindustrialization | + | ::deindustrialization |
| − | and the growth of | + | ::and the growth of |
| − | + | :Letter spacing | |
| − | + | ::their famous paper | |
| − | + | ::on the relationship | |
| − | + | ::b e t w e e n | |
| − | + | ::deindustrialization | |
| + | ::and the growth of | ||
| − | + | :Hyphenation | |
| − | + | ::their famous paper | |
| − | + | ::on the relationship | |
| − | + | ::between deindus- | |
| − | + | ::trialization and the | |
| − | and the growth of | + | ::growth of ecological |
| − | + | :Stretching | |
| − | + | ::their famous paper | |
| − | + | ::on the relationship | |
| − | + | ::<big><big><big>between</big></big></big> | |
| − | deindustrialization | + | ::deindustrialization |
| − | and the growth of | + | ::and the growth of |
| − | + | :Filler | |
| − | + | ::their famous paper | |
| − | on the relationship | + | ::on the relationship |
| − | between | + | ::between crap like |
| − | deindustrialization | + | ::deindustrialization |
| − | and the growth of | + | ::and the growth of |
| − | + | :Snakes | |
| + | ::their famous paper | ||
| + | ::on the relationship | ||
| + | ::between 🐍 [a snake filling the gap] | ||
| + | ::deindustrialization | ||
| + | ::and the growth of | ||
==Trivia== | ==Trivia== | ||
