Page:The practice of typography; correct composition; a treatise on spelling, abbreviations, the compounding and division of words, the proper use of figures and nummerals by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914.djvu/144

 This system is of most service in dividing words of many syllables, yet it frequently happens that a word must be divided on an unemphasized syllable. No system of division known to the writer is so entirely satisfactory as to command general obedience.

The compositor usually takes for his guide in division the dictionary selected by the office as its authority, but he sometimes finds that this authority is rejected by the proof-reader and the author, who say that a word is not always correctly divided when it is hyphened according to the dictionary, for the hyphens are inserted there only as helps to a proper pronunciation. Dictionaries not only differ with one another, but are not always consistent with their own practice in making syllables of similar words.

Fifty years ago the proposition was made by some unknown reformer of typography that all divisions are blemishes. It was then taught that the unequal spacing of words in proximate lines which must follow the application of this rule should be rated as a more tolerable defect. Obeying this teaching, the late Joel Munsell of Albany printed a book of many pages in which no divided word can be seen; but the spacing between the words was unavoidably irregular, and the general effect of the print was not pleasing. His method had few imitators.