In setting a line of type they proceeded
until there was no room in the line for the next complete word of the copy.
Then they filled out the line with spaces and began the next word on the
next line. The length of the register being known in advance and nothing
but spaces being used in setting the line, the compositor was spared much
that makes composition at once a hard labor and a fine art. The result was
an irregular margin at the right such as we now see in typewritten letters.
With improvements in types and typography the squaring out of the page soon
came into fashion. In many cases this can be done by the careful use of
spaces so as to bring a certain number of words squarely out to the end of
the line. There have been printers who have insisted that this should
always be done. Their efforts have not, however, been successful. They
result in a freakish looking page with white spots in the lines where
letters or words have been spaced out to fill the register. It would be
better, on the whole, to resort to the practice of the old masters and
leave the right-hand margin irregular.
Ordinarily the difficulty has been met by dividing words and putting a part
of a word on one line and the rest of it on another, indicating the break
by a hyphen. The hyphen in such a case is always the closing character in
the first line. Clearly this division must be so made as to assist the
reader in his task.
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