142. THE NON-DESIGNER'S TYPE BOOK

Headlines

Don't hyphenate headlines. That's a law.

Don Quixote de la Man- Don't laugh—I have actually

cha seen this as a printed headline.

Someone did it.

Also, watch where the first line of a two-line headline ends—does it
create a siUy or misleading phrase? Fix it.

Professor and The- Don't Lose Your Self

rapist to Lecture Respect

Don't leave widows (very short last Unes) in headlines.

Man Walks Barefoot Across Bay
Bridge

Fix it either way, or rewrite!

Man walks barefoot across Bay Bridge

Man walks barefoot
across Bay Bridge

LINE BREAKS AND HYPHENATION

Captions

GeneraUy captions don't need to stretch aU the way across a column width.
This flexibility gives you the freedom to break Unes at appropriate places to
create sensible phrasing. This is especiaUy true if you center captions—you
don't want aU the lines the same length anyway.

Breaking sentences into complete phrases creates a more readable caption,
and since many people read only the captions, it behooves you to make
them as readable as possible.

Will Rogers said, "We can't all be heroes because some¬
one has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by."

Why hyphenate in a caption1?

Will Rogers said, "We can't all be heroes because
someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go
by."

There is no excuse to leave a widow in a caption!

Will Rogers said, "We can't all be heroes because someone
has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by."

Will Rogers said, "We can't all be heroes because
someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by."

These last two would not look good as paragraphs, but
would work fine aligned under a photograph or illustration.