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What are widows and orphans in typesetting?

A widow is the last line of a paragraph left alone at the top of a new page. An orphan is the first line of a paragraph left alone at the bottom of a page. Both break the reading rhythm, so typesetters keep at least two lines of a paragraph together on each side of a page break.

What it means in practice

In a Word document, you fix these with the paragraph setting for widow and orphan control, or by editing a line or two so the break falls somewhere else. A book with fixed pages needs the check again after any late edit, since one added line can move every page break after it.

The usual cost of the fix is a page that ends a line short at the bottom.

How Chapbook uses it

Chapbook typesets its PDFs and paperback interiors with Typst. Typst’s documentation says text layout prevents widows and orphans by default, and Chapbook’s theme keeps that default, so a paragraph that would leave one line on the next page takes a second line with it.

The preflight report under a paperback doesn’t flag these, since the layout already avoids them. A reflowable EPUB is laid out by the reader’s app, and a Word document follows your word processor’s settings.

In a real book

Cover of Slow Money by Rosa Almeida: a scored round sourdough loaf on flour in warm low light above dark type on cream, subtitle “What a family bakery taught me about pricing, patience and staying small”.
Title page. Page 1 of Slow Money.
Copyright. Page 2 of Slow Money.
Contents. Page 3 of Slow Money.
Prologue: The Second Oven. Page 4 of Slow Money.
Prologue: The Second Oven. Page 5 of Slow Money.
The First Price Rise. Page 6 of Slow Money.
The First Price Rise. Page 7 of Slow Money.
The First Price Rise. Page 8 of Slow Money.
The First Price Rise. Page 9 of Slow Money.
The Loan We Did Not Take. Page 10 of Slow Money.
The Loan We Did Not Take. Page 11 of Slow Money.
The Loan We Did Not Take. Page 12 of Slow Money.
The Loan We Did Not Take. Page 13 of Slow Money.
The Second Shop, and Why Not a Third. Page 14 of Slow Money.
The Second Shop, and Why Not a Third. Page 15 of Slow Money.
The Second Shop, and Why Not a Third. Page 16 of Slow Money.
The Second Shop, and Why Not a Third. Page 17 of Slow Money.
The Second Shop, and Why Not a Third. Page 18 of Slow Money.
Hours, and the Cost of Being Open. Page 19 of Slow Money.
Hours, and the Cost of Being Open. Page 20 of Slow Money.
Hours, and the Cost of Being Open. Page 21 of Slow Money.
Hours, and the Cost of Being Open. Page 22 of Slow Money.
The Wholesale Account We Let Go. Page 23 of Slow Money.
The Wholesale Account We Let Go. Page 24 of Slow Money.
The Wholesale Account We Let Go. Page 25 of Slow Money.
The Wholesale Account We Let Go. Page 26 of Slow Money.
Hiring Family and Paying Them Properly. Page 27 of Slow Money.
Hiring Family and Paying Them Properly. Page 28 of Slow Money.
Hiring Family and Paying Them Properly. Page 29 of Slow Money.
Hiring Family and Paying Them Properly. Page 30 of Slow Money.
What the Numbers Said Each January. Page 31 of Slow Money.
What the Numbers Said Each January. Page 32 of Slow Money.
What the Numbers Said Each January. Page 33 of Slow Money.
What the Numbers Said Each January. Page 34 of Slow Money.
Epilogue: Small on Purpose. Page 35 of Slow Money.
Epilogue: Small on Purpose. Page 36 of Slow Money.
Back cover of Slow Money: the description over the cover's artwork.
Prologue: The Second Oven 5 / 38
Slow Money, what a family bakery taught me about pricing, patience and staying small: a nonfiction book of 9,273 words and 37 pages on 6 × 9 in, generated from one brief and exported unedited. It is a sample, not a customer's book. Download the PDF (425 KB) or the EPUB (226 KB).

Sources

Last reviewed 30 October 2026

  1. Typst documentation, the text function’s “costs” parameter
  1. What is a running head in a book? A running head is the line at the top of a book's pages naming the book or chapter. Where it goes, where it doesn't, and how Chapbook sets one in a real sample.
  2. What is a reflowable ebook? A reflowable ebook has no fixed pages: its text rearranges to fit the screen and the reader's type size. What that changes, and why Chapbook's EPUB works this way.

Questions people ask

Which is the widow and which is the orphan?

A widow is the last line of a paragraph at the top of a page, alone on the next page. An orphan is the first line of a paragraph at the bottom of a page. Style guides discourage both.

Can a Chapbook EPUB have widows?

An EPUB has no fixed pages, so the reading app decides where each page breaks. Chapbook's protection applies to the fixed pages of its PDFs.

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