3 ms·
Widows are when the final line of a paragraph starts the next page. Orphans are when the first line of a paragraph ends a page.
by wombatpm 1mo ago
Widows are when the final line of a paragraph starts the next page. Orphans are when the first line of a paragraph ends a page.
- Biganon 1mo agoFunny because "fixing an orphan" is hard in real life (assuming they've lost both their parents, you have to find them a foster home) but easy in typesetting (just add an empty line before), whereas "fixing a widow" is easy in real life (just remarry) but hard in typesetting.
- 1718627440 1mo agoHow is finding one person suitable to be a parent (to make them a foster parent) differently hard, than finding another person suitable to be a parent (to marry them)?
- dash2 1mo agoFewer people want to foster than to have their own kids?
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- 1718627440 1mo agoFor a foster parent you only need to find someone willing to adopt a child, which already register themself into a list. For marriage you need to find someone willing to marry and to marry you out of random people.
- thfuran 1mo agoAlso, marriage doesn’t imply children.
- 1718627440 1mo agoDepends, but I see what you mean.
- IAmBroom 1mo agoNever "depends". Marriage doesn't guarantee children, nor even the desire to try for them, both of which can occur without marriage.
- IAmBroom 1mo agoSorta. Neither the human orphan nor the widow is fixed by your description; they simply aren't alone either more. The child is still an orphan; the woman a widow.
- pflenker 1mo agoThe explanation for the German words (widow = Schusterjunge, which means cobbler‘s boy, orphan = hurenkind, as mentioned in another comment) is also applicable for the English ones: An orphan doesn’t know where it comes from, a widow doesn’t know where she will go.
- ahofmann 1mo agoIn german typography the name for widow is "Hurenkind" wich translates to "child of a whore". I was pretty surprised to hear that word on a regular basis while working in text for print. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurenkind_und_Schusterjunge https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurenkind_und_Schusterjunge
- tonyedgecombe 1mo agoYou will have to explain what a page is to the younger readers.
- butlike 1mo agoSurely they know the concept of a book
- tonyedgecombe 1mo agoAre you sure about that?
- samudrijan 1mo agoIt’s like when you click on a new link. That’s a page.
- nom 1mo agoclick?