Does the kindle do auto-justification?

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Your example of "re-creation" v. "recreation" is a good example where the hyphen does change the meaning, but any native English speaker could immediately tell from the context which was meant in any particular sentence.

Yes, but the readability decreased and the purpose of typographical rule of thumbs is to increase readability. So that you can understand it is not argument against the rule.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tompe

Are you sure of that? It is hard to check since it is not so common. I checked some books now but could not fins any examples. So I am not convinced that you are right. But I will from now look for this. Actually i cannot remember ever having seen it.

I'm pretty sure that no eBook reader that I've seen breaks lines on hyphens, but that obviously doesn't mean that those that I haven't seen don't do so .

[wallcraft]

FBReader breaks on hyphens:

tompe does not like the break after re-cre, but I'm not sure if this is something a layout editor would do or not. Interestingly, FBReader does not break recreation after re.

[HarryT]

Thanks, wallcraft. I briefly looked at FBReader when I had my iLiad, but didn't like it very much, so didn't spend too much time investigating it.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Interestingly, FBReader does not break recreation after re.

That is probably just a rule about the number of characters to have before hyphen.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm pretty sure that no eBook reader that I've seen breaks lines on hyphens, but that obviously doesn't mean that those that I haven't seen don't do so .

But the question was if printed books of a certain quality level did it? You seemed to argue that it was not a typographical rule to not break a line at a hyphen. Since I have not seen books that do it and since some programs forbids it I still think it is a good typographical rule of thumb.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tompe

But the question was if printed books of a certain quality level did it? You seemed to argue that it was not a typographical rule to not break a line at a hyphen. Since I have not seen books that do it and since some programs forbids it I still think it is a good typographical rule of thumb.

Here's an example for you - a page scan of a page from my very good quality "Bleak House". There are actually two examples on this page: "gate-way" and "fire-engine" (both words which Dickens always spells with a hyphen). Both words are broken at the hyphen.

[susanrubendall]

On the Kindle, to switch back and forth from full to left justification, press the font size key and then the letter "J." Justification options will appear at the bottom of the screen. You can choose full or left justification. Font size 3 allows about 48 characters per line. I think it's easier to read left justified.

[JSWolf]

When you are used to reading full justified then going to left justified is awful to look at.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

When you are used to reading full justified then going to left justified is awful to look at.

Doesn't that rather depend what it is that you're reading? You wouldn't want to read poetry fully-justified, I suspect.

[Kruskal]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Doesn't that rather depend what it is that you're reading? You wouldn't want to read poetry fully-justified, I suspect.

It also depends a lot on font size. The larger the font, the fewer characters per line and the crazier it can look to attempt to right-justify.