Process of Hyphenation
Before knowing the process of hyphenation, we know to understand what is Hyphenation.
Hyphenation is a process of dividing the words at the end of the line of the text. It is symbolized by hyphen mark which is dividing the words by syllables. It is often adjusted together with justification settings and good setup of both settings should result in good flow and easily readable body text.
This blog will focus on hyphenation of body copy and other uses of hyphenation.
Hyphenation can be adjusted in two ways. Manually and Automatically. As with all text adjustments that are done for the whole magazine I suggest to adjust the hyphenation settings in the paragraph style palette. Of course to achieve the best results you should select the appropriate dictionary from the language list in Advanced Character Formats in Paragraph Style options.
Automatic text hyphenation
InDesign hyphenate option has several options:
Words With At Least X Letters Specifies the minimum number of characters for hyphenated words. The minimum should be 5, meaning the words with less than 5 characters won’t be hyphenated.
After First X Letters / Before Last X Letters This option Specifies the minimum number of characters at the beginning or end of a word that can be broken by a hyphen. For the first letters, value should be 2 and for the last letters, value should be 2. With this settings the word will be hyphenated only after first 2 letters and before last 2 letters.
Hyphen Limit X Hyphens Specify the maximum number of hyphens that can appear on consecutive lines. Zero means unlimited hyphens. Here the value should be 3. This means that the maximum of three consecutive lines of text will be hyphenated. More would be a big mistake resulting in much harder text readability and this is bad typesetting.
Hyphenation Zone Specify the amount of white space allowed at the end of a line of unjustified text before hyphenation begins. This option applies only when you’re using the Single-line Composer with non-justified text.
Better Spacing / Fewer Hyphens To alter the balance between these settings, adjust the slider at the bottom of the dialog box. Here you can move the slider to the second tick on the right for fewer hyphens. Don’t worry about bad spacing since you will adjust the spacing in the justification settings. In this way you get the best of both options. Properly justified text with few hyphens.
Hyphenate Capitalized Words To prevent capitalized words from being hyphenated, deselect this option. Try to avoid this. Capitalized words that are hyphenated don’t look nice.
Hyphenate Last Word To prevent last words in paragraphs from being hyphenated, deselect this option. This option should be avoided also since it will result in orphaned text which you will have to adjust manually.
Hyphenate Across Column To prevent words from being hyphenated across a column, frame, or page, deselect this option. Another option that should be avoided. Imagine that you hyphenate the word that is crossing from one column to another and those columns are crossing pages also. Not good, right! This is bad type setting and should be avoided.
Manual text hyphenation
From time to time you will have to manually hyphenate the text. You can do this in two ways. First, using the Type tool, click where you want to insert the hyphen.
Then do one of the following: Choose Type > Insert Special Character > Hyphens And Dashes > Discretionary Hyphen. Press Ctrl+Shift+- (Windows) or Command+Shift+- (Mac OS) to insert a discretionary hyphen.
It must be noted that by entering a discretionary hyphen in a word does not guarantee that the word will be hyphenated. Whether or not the word breaks depends on other hyphenation and composition settings. However, entering a discretionary hyphen in a word does guarantee that the word can be broken only where the discretionary hyphen appears.
