Formatting Definitions

flush left/rag right –

the alignment of copy; whereby, the copy on the left is aligned, and the copy on the right leaves a ragged margin.

flush right/rag left –

the opposite of flush left/rag right.

justified –

the alignment of copy; whereby, the copy is aligned both left and right, such as for newspaper copy.

kerning –

moving letters closer together to make the word more visually appealing.

	(“W” and “A” are too far apart; they should be kerned.)
	(All letters look evenly spaced from the closest points of each letter.)
	(All letters look tight, but evenly spaced from the closest points of each letter. Tightness of letters is a matter of preference.)

leading –

the amount of space between lines of copy or before and after headlines; traditionally measured from baseline to baseline.

orphan –

a headline or first line of a paragraph left by itself at the bottom of a column or page, or the last line of a paragraph left by itself at the top of a column or page; considered undesirable in typography.

river –

vertical white space that occurs when word spaces in successive lines of type appear immediately below one another for some distance; happens most often in justified copy; makes copy hard to read; considered undesirable in typography. (Sometimes rivers are more easily seen when the copy is upside down.)

Look for the rivers

Rivers identified

typography –

the art of arranging type and elements on a page to produce the most aesthetic result; “how it looks.”

widow –

a single word or part of a word left on a line by itself; considered undesirable in typography.

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