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/212



OMPOSITION is made more pleasing when the spaces between words seem to be of the same width in all lines on the page. A reader is repelled by print in which words have been separated, as they may be occasionally, by two three-to-em spaces in the first and by five-to-em spaces in the next line. Quite as unsightly are lines that have been thick-spaced at one side and thin-spaced at the other. Spacing of either kind, as is shown in this paragraph, is a disgrace to the printer; it is a fault for which there is seldom acceptable excuse.

Even spacing is not easily secured. Whether the measure is narrow or wide, whether the type is fat or lean, the compositor has to put in type the words as set down in his copy. He must divide words on syllables only; but some syllables and some words