A note to all print publishers out there: if you’re doing a layout for an article that mentions URLs, don’t auto-hyphenate.
from Bookwatch Vol. 11, Issue 2, page 26
Hyphenated text is a elegant feature of typesetting. Auto-hyphenated text is equally ingenious, but will break usability when a URL is longer than the space alloted to it. Unlike in web design, where a long string of text will brim over its containing element by default, print design is fixed and WYSIWYG.
The photo says it all. Try visiting http://virtual-blooms.com and you’ll get nothing. Try it without the hyphen and you’ll get what the article meant to say but auto-hyphenatedly ruined. Not that people who read print even care about the websites featured.
Turn off that auto-hyphenate in your layout software, whether it’s Word, Publisher, InDesign, or QuarkXPress.
it’s funny though. stupid ..but funny.
i’m weird like this.
what could be done in the case of, say, http://thisisareallylongurlthathastobementionedintheprintedarticle.com?
dang, that’s funny :P
garro, i’m not too sure, but i think there’s a limit to the number of characters to the right of the dot. again, am not sure.
@garro
they should just have to link it, and anchor it a shorter destination
of course, it’s published on print and will be unclickable. but that’s the audience’s problem
Garro, my point is, don’t put a hyphen if you’re going to break a URL into multiple lines.
Corsarius, I think you meant to the left of the dot (com).
Paolo, again, my point is, we’re talking about print here. And I don’t think it’s wise for a publisher to argue “it’s the audience’s problem”.
I’m thinking they should’ve put the correct URL in a footnote spanning a longer line length, but that’s just me.
ohh gets. hahaha. maybe a dotted underline for the broken-up url could provide a semblance of continuity.
True, if that happens then you confuse your print readers because people will type what they see exactly. They will not even know or at times figure out that it was the hyphen that created the problem.