When formatting the title of an article that doesn't fit on a single line, is there any standard method of choosing where to add line breaks?
Some examples titles:
On the expected maximum degree of Gabriel and Yao graphs Entropy, triangulation, and point location in planar subdivisions Connectivity-preserving transformations of binary images Carpentry and joinery: Algorithms and Applications
If necessary, I would make these into two-line titles as
On the expected maximum degree of Gabriel and Yao graphs
Entropy, triangulation, and point location in planar subdivisions
Connectivity-preserving transformations of binary images
Carpentry and joinery: Algorithms and applications
My "algorithm" seems to be to try and start the second line with an article (or break a line after a colon), but I'm not sure why I think this is any better than just letting software choose the location of the line break. Is there a guide on the "right way" to do this?
I do the same. For Title Case heads I sometimes leave the article at the end of the first line so there will be two caps at the left. It's a case-by-case thing, though. I like to keep names and short phrases on one line as you show in your examples. I haven't found anything in the Chicago Manual of Style about breaking subheads. I try to balance reader comprehension and making a nice shape with the head. Sometimes shape wins out, but usually I break for the readers' ease of understanding.
Love finding others making and answering these types of queries. Hard to know what to do when faced with these details sometimes!
You stated you broke headings after a colon. Is this a general rule in text design and editing? Or, is it just your preference? How would you run the heads and breaks in a 6 x 9 regular book, say of film criticism? I'm working on a book of such now and our editor requested that the subhead:
Mob Man to Tabloid Racketeer: Mobilizing the Gangster Figure
be changed to read and break as follows:
Mob Man to Tabloid Racketeer: Mobilizing the Gangster Figure.
Problem is, an earlier subhead with a colon was allowed to remain on one line. It read:
Unholy Partners: Curtains for the Tabloid Racketeer
Seem inconsistent if I follow her request. If I break one subhead at the colon, shouldn't all be break at it?
Since I come from the design side of things in text design, I tend towards how the heading and breaks look on a page, but even then, it's hard to make a decision on a break. I heard that a longer 2nd line is desirable for heading breaks. Is this a standard practice, too?
Thanks for any followup to this question. Love the forum! Hope it keeps up.
I agree with breaking the "Mob Man" head after the colon. That doesn't mean all heads with colons need to be broken at the colon, just that, if you have to break it, break it at the colon when possible because that gives emphasis to both halves of the head. If there are only two words before the colon and 7 after, then it's better to break for sense or line length balance.
Mob Man to Racketeer: Mobilizing the Gangster Figure in Modern Pulp Fiction
is preferable, IMHO, to
Mob Man to Racketeer: Mobilizing the Gangster Figure in Modern Pulp Fiction
because the lines are too different in length, or to
Mob Man to Racketeer: Mobilizing the Gangster Figure in Modern Pulp Fiction
because I prefer to keep the descriptive phrase "Gangster Figure" on the same line.
If the head is centered, then
Mob Man to Racketeer: Mobilizing the Gangster Figure in Modern Pulp Fiction