Design Nomenclature / Type

Orphan

This entry has not been translated yet and is shown in English.

A paragraph's opening line left alone at the foot of a column or page while the rest of the paragraph moves on. It reads as a false start: the reader begins a thought, hits the column break, and has to restart it at the top of the next.

Two column pairs. In the first, a paragraph begins on the very last line of the left column and continues at the top of the right, so the reader starts a thought and must restart it after the break; in the second the whole paragraph has been pushed over intact.

Not to be confused with

How this term connects

MeasureRagTypographic hierarchyWidowOrphan
Related Confused with