This essay, Wikipedia:Advanced text formatting or Advanced typesetting, describes many techniques to control (or adjust) the alignment of text on a page. For people with professional backgrounds in typesetting, this essay is not intended as a joke, but rather, an advancement over the default typesetting of stub articles. Techniques listed here are still intended for general readers.
Contents
- 1 Moving vanity-boxes lower in articles
- 2 Setting wrap-indent by tag wbr
- 3 Avoiding wrap of end-quote or apostrophe
- 4 Setting small font-size of lesser text
- 5 Reducing line-height when wrapping small text
- 6 Reducing line-height in a quote-box
- 7 Reducing leading-distance in a quote-box
- 8 Expanding line-height for song lyrics or poems
- 9 Word-joining to avoid one-word-per-line
- 10 Bold but not too bold
- 11 Adjusting spaces for kerning between letters
- 12 Auto-indenting of text
- 13 Changing font faces
- 14 Changing font color or span style=color
- 15 Undenting/bracketing of text
- 16 See also
- 17 Notes
Moving vanity-boxes lower in articles[edit]
Perhaps the single greatest improvement to many articles is to lower those grandstanding top tag-boxes that proclaim, "This article is defective: fix immediately". Most of those tag-box templates allow a parameter "|section" when lowering the tag-box further down the page. For example: {{RefImprove|section|date=March 2016}}. Moving a distracting tag-box can vastly improve the readability for readers, who might otherwise become alarmed and distracted by a 2-year-old gripe box someone threw on the page, unopposed, years ago, giving the impression that the tag-box must be read to avoid critically dangerous information in an article.
Setting wrap-indent by tag wbr[edit]
The HTML tag <wbr> can be used to wrap before non-breaking spaces, as <wbr> at the wrap position, which allows the wrapped portion to be indented by a non-breaking space. See table:
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Text Typical wrapping With
<wbr>Rhianna Lea Doe Rhianna Lea Doe Rhianna Lea Doe 486 plus 6 at-large 486 plus 6 at-large 486 plus 6 at-large Advanced typesetting Advanced typesetting Advanced typesetting
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More indentation can be set by 2 spaces (Rhianna<wbr> Lea), but the extra space might seem excessive between some words (unless all nearby spaces are doubled). The width to trigger a wrap-indent depends on the user's browser TextSize zoom level, where larger levels trigger the wrapping more often, and a single space indents more at higher zoom. A common use for wrap-indent formatting is within infobox lists, where a non-indented wrapped line might be misinterpreted as 2 entries, rather than as a long entry which has wrapped onto the next line. The <wbr> tag also works with older browsers, but not in Internet Explorer since version 7.
Avoiding wrap of end-quote or apostrophe[edit]
One of the most troublesome typesetting glitches is the wrapping of the last word in a quotation onto a second line, when followed by parentheses or brackets:
Typical wrapping of end-quotemark:
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There are several methods to allow the end-word to stay on the same line, without wrapping. Perhaps the most common fix is to append the blank-code   (or even a comma) after the end quotemark so that it will not wrap too soon:
Wrapping of end-quotemark plus  :
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To fix wrapping, the word dogs is followed by   (after the quotemark: ... dogs" ). Because thousands of articles begin with formally defining a term, with stating a quoted meaning, the forced wrapping of end quotemarks has become a major typesetting nightmare in Wikipedia. The wrapping of end-quotes grew to be so common, during 2005-2009, that it has become instinctive to expect an end-quote to almost always be prematurely wrapped onto a second line, and the first line to be truncated as bizarrely too short. The premature wrapping of the 18-character phrase "dogs...typewriter" is typical, not an exaggeration of how much text gets forced onto the second line in many articles.
A similar problem occurs with an end-apostrophe & parentheses:
Typical wrapping of end apostrophe:
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Wrapping of end-apostrophe plus &160:
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Besides using   other characters, such as comma, semicolon or slash, could be appended after the end quotemark, if they fit the meaning. There might be other situations of forced wrapping in Wikipedia text.
Setting small font-size of lesser text[edit]
Lesser text can be reduced to a smaller font size, such as by using a span-tag:
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<span style="font-size:88%">German: ''Der Lange-Annoying-Name-der-Dinge''</span>
That font-size will shrink the text somewhat: German: Der Lange-Annoying-Name-der-Dinge. A highly irritating problem can be the placement of too much foreign (or off-topic text) in the intro section. Much tangent-level wording should be moved to lower sections. However, the use of a reduced font-size can help minimize the glaring impact of off-topic text. Sizes such as 95% or 92% retain the original font shape; however, sizes of 88% or 85% might be needed. To reduce a larger section of text, consider using the paired <div>...</div> tags (instead of <span>...</span>).
The default small text-size, with almost no shape, is selected by <small>aa bb cc xx yy zz</small>, which appears as: aa bb cc xx yy zz. Using <span style="font-family:Georgia;">, to switch from default Arial font to (Georgia font), the small text will appear as: small Georgia-font a b c x y z.
Reducing line-height when wrapping small text[edit]
A very common problem, when using a smaller font, is the gapping caused by large interline spacing between the lines. A better line-height (for small-font notes) is: 1.3em, such as by:
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<span style="font-size:88%; line-height: 1.3em;">xxx</span>
Such small lines could be used in a lengthy image caption, where the typical caption size would take too much space, for the amount of detailed caption being displayed. Of course, once again, a full solution often involves removing some excess text (from the image caption) to a lower spot on the page, and then referring to the image, such as {{crossref|(see image)}} from that text.
Reducing line-height in a quote-box[edit]
Another use of reduced line-height might be for an indented quote-box, where the smaller line-height might help in emphasizing the quote as being a special text section. For example, using:
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<span style="font-size:92%; line-height: 1.31em;">xxx</span>
Then enclose the text of a quote, such as the following:
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- For scientific endeavor is a natural whole, the parts
of which mutually support one another in a way which,
to be sure, no one can anticipate.
– Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years
- For scientific endeavor is a natural whole, the parts
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Sometimes, the setting must be precise, where 1.20em would be too close, or 1.35em would separate lines too much, while 1.31em provides an even balance, for the particular lines in the quotation. Because the line-height is reduced, the effect of the quotation is different than merely indenting the text. Note how the line for author "Einstein" has been indented, far to the right: the new indenter template {{in5|32}} was used to indent across 32 spaces further than the quoted lines: {{in5|32}}– Albert ....
Reducing leading-distance in a quote-box[edit]
Examples[edit]
This block of text has default leading:
Typography (Greek: typos "form", graphein "to write") is the art and technique of setting written subject matter in type using a combination of typeface styles, point sizes, line lengths, line leading, character spacing, and word spacing to produce typeset artwork in physical or digital form.
The same block of text set with 50% leading is easier to read:
Typography (Greek: typos "form", graphein "to write") is the art and technique of setting written subject matter in type using a combination of typeface styles, point sizes, line lengths, line leading, character spacing, and word spacing to produce typeset artwork in physical or digital form.
The same block of text at 100% leading is again easier to read[citation needed] but makes less efficient use of vertical page space:
Typography (Greek: typos "form", graphein "to write") is the art and technique of setting written subject matter in type using a combination of typeface styles, point sizes, line lengths, line leading, character spacing, and word spacing to produce typeset artwork in physical or digital form.
Expanding line-height for song lyrics or poems[edit]
The opposite technique, of increased line-height, might be used for some indented song lyrics (or poetry), where the larger line-height could help in emphasizing the "double-spaced" appearance of a text section. For example, using:
<span style="font-size:92%; line-height: 2.1em;">xxx</span>
Then enclose the song lyrics as "xxx", wrapped with <poem>...</poem>, which preserves line-breaking, as follows:
This is coded as:
An inline annotation can be made to the side, but using <br /> between the lines, instead of <poem>:
The exact coding of the song lyrics could be a single line in this case, as follows:
For coding on multiple lines, when using the <br /> technique, use <div>...</div> rather than <span>...</span> tags.
In either case, because the line-height is increased, the effect of the quoted text appears similar to having used double-spaced lines in the text. The extra spacing also helps for annotations, such as noting, in the chorus (for the 2008 song "Viva la Vida") how "Roman cavalry" refers to horse-soldiers, while the "choirs are singing" the lines "Be my mirror", etc. (This is a contrived example; anyone fluent in English already knows what "cavalry" means.) The length of each line is chosen to reflect the cadence or rhythm of the music, where the singer could take a breath at the end of each line. (The lyrics are truncated, to keep them short, per copyright restrictions limiting to 10%, or prohibiting the display of an entire performable unit, of a composition).
These examples are shown indented here, to set them off from the explanatory text, but would not be the actual article. If this effect where desired, it could be done like this, using the {{quote}} template:
Which renders as:
I hear Jerusalem, bells are ringing,
Roman cavalry, choirs are singing,
"Be my mirror, my sword and shield,
My missionairies in a foreign field",
For some reason....— Coldplay, "Viva la Vida"[1]
Word-joining to avoid one-word-per-line[edit]
Words can be joined by or {{nowrap|xx xx}} to force the words to appear together, on one line. Sometimes text, next to a wide image-box or wide infobox, tends to get squeezed into a narrow column of text. A very narrow column can cause text-wrapping as, sometimes, one-word-per-line, all the way down the entire column. In such cases, by word-joining the first few words of a phrase (such as At the outset or The region covers), the text can be forced down the page, into a wider column, where all the joined-words can fit side-by-side, across the line. Then, even when the page is viewed in larger browser text-size settings, the joined text will float down to columns where the typesetting looks more logical, rather than the default, of one-word-per-line, in a narrow column. This obviously should only be done with a few words, not long strings of text, or undesirable (and, browser-by-browser, unpredictable) display results will occur.
Bold but not too bold[edit]
Bold-faced text can be softened, or visually thinned, by using dark gray text, rather than typical black, as the text font-color. For example:
The dark-gray color (#666666) will appear as:
Compare the bolded text of "One", "Two" and "Three" against the starker contrast of the default boldfacing results:
In Wikipedia, bold-faced text is used, primarily, to highlight words that are:
- the title of the article, repeated in the lead;
- alternative names of the article's or section's topic, that redirect to this location;
- section headings;
- table headers;
- terms in glossaries;
- and a few other special uses.
Bold-faced text could be confusing when used in other ways, so the use of a lighter bolded text allows for this style of highlighting, with less ambiguity.
Also, other, lively colors could be bolded without much confusion with the article-title words (see color choices in: Web colors). Also see topic below: § Notes).
Adjusting spaces for kerning between letters[edit]
Typically, when using italic text, the spacing after an italic word often will seem too narrow (as a kerning problem), and hence a small amount of extra space could be added after the italic text as   to insert a so-called "thin space", or for small text, a   "hair space" (a normal-width space is too large for this purpose). In many cases, the wording could be phrased so that a comma, or period (full stop) or right parenthesis (curved bracket) follows the italic text, which would also act to widen the spacing at the end of the italic text. Some examples:
Perhaps the most-common adjustment would be to insert   after italic text which ends with a tall letter (such as: h, l, t, or any capital, e.g. W). However, by planned phrasing, instead, a comma could be added after italic words to widen the visual spacing after the italicized part.
Auto-indenting of text[edit]
Text can be auto-indented, depending on screen width, using ":" followed by " " as follows:
: {{nowrap|"There is no substitute for knowledge". -Deming}}
The indented line will indent less, on a narrow screen, because the non-breaking spaces will be on an upper line, and the text will shift to the next line. The result will appear as:
- "There is no substitute for knowledge". -Deming
The reason for auto-indenting: sometimes, text needs to be indented on wide screens but not indented, as much, on narrow windows because it would not fit across the line, if fully indented on a narrow window. This is typically the case for a long math equation or formula, such as the following:
: <math>I_D= \mu_n C_{ox}\frac{W}{L} \left(
(V_{GS}-V_{th})V_{DS}-\frac{V_{DS}^2}{2} \right)</math>
The generated formula will appear as:
On a very-narrow window, then the formula would auto-indent with less left-side spacing.
Such use of auto-indented text is, typically, rare, but can avoid large text-gaps where the page would become half-blank on a narrow window. Otherwise, many long equations (especially, near images or infoboxes) would be shifted down a page, causing a wide text-gap to appear, because they would be too long to fit when fully indented.
Changing font faces[edit]
The MediaWiki markup language supports many HTML tags, including <span style="font-family:Garamond;"> and such. Some of the fonts are:
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- Garamond: This is Garamond font.
- Georgia: This is Georgia font.
- Courier: This is Courier font.
- Helvetica: This is Helvetica font.
- Times Roman: This is Times Roman font.
- Arial: This is Arial font (default).
- Linux Libertine: This is Linux Libertine.
Changing font color or span style=color[edit]
The MediaWiki markup language supports HTML-style color tags, to change the color of text, such as "<span style="color:gray;">xx</span>". Templates like {{color}} also exist to change text color.
To change text colors, some colors are (or see all: Web colors):
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- Darkgreen: This is "darkgreen" font color.
- Darkred & crimson: This is "darkred" font color and "crimson" here.
- Blue: This is "blue" font color and "darkblue" here.
- Darkorange: This is darkorange font color.
- Chocolate & SaddleBrown: This is "chocolate" font color and "SaddleBrown" here.
- Gray: This is "gray" font color and "darkgray" here.
- #515151: Using <span style="color:#515151;"> here.
The default color is black (or hex-code #000000). When changing the text color, care must be taken to put the "/" in the end tag, such as "</span>" to reset text color afterward. For an extensive list of hundreds of screen colors, see: Web colors.
Undenting/bracketing of text[edit]
Real typesetting software,typically has had simple directives to trigger alignments as left, right, center, or undented (beyond the left-margin line). However, for decades, HTML has had only limited options for easy alignment (one: <center>). A method for undenting the first word of a paragraph is to put the paragraph into a text-table, where the first word (or syllable) is (alone) in column 1, while the other text is in column 2. For example, undenting "Beethoven":
- Wikicode: :::<table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td valign=top>Bee<td>thoven
composed [[Moonlight Sonata]]<br>while he was losing his hearing.</table> - Results:
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Bee thoven composed Moonlight Sonata
while he was losing his hearing.
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Note the use of both "cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0" so as to not separate the spacing between the first syllable "Bee" and "thoven".
A third column can be used to enclose text in outside brackets, then putting the closing-bracket "]" in column 3, as follows:
- Wikicode: :::<table><tr><td valign=top>[<td>This is line 1.<br>Line 2.<td>]</table>
- Results:
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[ This is line 1.
Line 2.]
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The designers of the HTML language had only limited knowledge of typesetting, so the only alignment directive was "<center>". However, the currently invalid options "<left>" and "<right>" could be added someday, as a trivial implementation, because to handle "center" then the left/right margins must already be known to the computer.
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- [a] - The lyrics are truncated, to keep them short, per copyright restrictions limiting display to 10%, or prohibiting the display of an entire performable unit, of a composition.
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- [ This essay is a draft to be expanded, later... ]
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