Re: Balanced lines

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Balanced lines/river control has been implemented in Sub Station Alpha and the 
VirtualDub subtitler and TextSub plugins for a long time. I don't see how 
this is in any way an "advanced" feature or even that complex to implement.

On Wednesday 13 August 2003 03:29 pm, Glenn A. Adams wrote:
> The type of line break behavior you refer to below is considered to be an
> advanced typesetting feature only available in fairly high-end pre-press
> systems (it is known in typesetting as "river control"). I can't imagine
> that any subtitle/cc user agent would implement it.
>
> See http://www.coathook.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/comp/comp3a.htm for some
> discussion of river control.
>
> Also, clearly a UA is not going to perform sentential analysis to determine
> line break points.
>
> G.
>
> 	-----Original Message-----
> 	From: Johnb@screen.subtitling.com [mailto:Johnb@screen.subtitling.com]
> 	Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2003 11:02 AM
> 	To: Glenn A. Adams
> 	Cc: public-tt@w3.org
> 	Subject: Balanced lines
>
>
> 	Glenn
>
> 		[JB> ] CSS wrap-option property does not have a value that produces
> balanced lines. Justification properties do not appear to help either.
>
> 		GA: What do you mean by "balanced lines"? If you mean left and right
> block justified, then the text-align property would be used to specify
> justify. Whether to perform soft layout, i.e., UA line wrapping, is
> independent of the alignment of line areas in the containing block area.
>
> 		[JB> ]  No I don't mean block justified. It's an issue of where in the
> lines to put a line break.
>
> 		So given a content of "Scooby dooby doo where are you?" a typical line
> break mechanism might break this as follows for a 22 character 2 line
> display (for ease lets assume a fixed font - as in Teletext).
>
>
>
> 		Scooby dooby doo where
> 		are you?
>
> 		The more balanced lines would be
>
> 		Scooby dooby doo
> 		where are you?
>
> 		From Australian Caption Centre guidelines
>
> 		" Where possible, caption lines should also be similar in length because
> this makes them much easier to read."
>
>
>
> 		YMMV
>
>
>
> 		There are a number of other 'rules' regarding line breaking that may or
> may not be desirable. However most of these require a detailed
> understanding of grammar....which I think is probably straying well outside
> the remit....
>
>
>
> 		regards
> 		John Birch
>
> 		The views and opinions expressed are the author's own and do not
> necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Screen Subtitling Systems
> Limited.
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Received on Thursday, 14 August 2003 02:51:00 UTC