Adobe InDesign Hyphenation Bug Report

Summary

Conflict between discretionary hyphen behavior and "After First / Before Last" hyphenation zone settings, where InDesign ignores discretionary hyphens that fall within the prohibited hyphenation zone.

Product Information

• Product: Adobe InDesign
• Component: Text Composition / Hyphenation Engine
• Feature Area: Automatic Hyphenation and Discretionary Hyphens

Problem Description

Expected Behavior

According to Adobe's documentation, discretionary hyphens should have absolute priority over automatic hyphenation rules. Specifically:

"Entering a discretionary hyphen in a word does guarantee that the word can be broken only where the discretionary hyphen appears."

When a word contains a discretionary hyphen that falls within the "After First X Letters" or "Before Last X Letters" prohibited zone, InDesign should:
1. Respect the discretionary hyphen's exclusivity (only break where discretionary hyphen appears)
2. Refuse to break the word at all since the only allowed break point falls within the prohibited zone
3. Not apply automatic hyphenation anywhere else in the word

Actual Behavior

InDesign ignores the discretionary hyphen when it falls within the prohibited hyphenation zone and applies automatic hyphenation rules instead, breaking the word at algorithmically-determined positions that fall outside the prohibited zone.

Conflicting Features

Feature 1: Document Hyphenation Preferences

• Location: Paragraph Panel Menu > Hyphenation Settings
• Setting: "After First [X] Letters / Before Last [X] Letters"
• Purpose: Defines minimum character zones at word beginnings/endings where hyphenation should not occur
• Example: With "After First 3 Letters / Before Last 3 Letters", the word "aromatic" may hyphenate as "aro-matic" but not "ar-omatic" or "aromat-ic"

Feature 2: Discretionary Hyphens

• Location: Type > Insert Special Character > Hyphens And Dashes > Discretionary Hyphen
• Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+- (Windows) or Command+Shift+- (macOS)
• Purpose: Manually specify the only allowable break point in a word
• Expected Behavior: Word can only break at the discretionary hyphen location, regardless of other settings

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a new InDesign document
2. Set up hyphenation preferences:
   • Go to Paragraph Panel Menu > Hyphenation Settings
   • Enable "Hyphenate"
   • Set "After First [3] Letters"
   • Set "Before Last [3] Letters"
3. Create a text frame with justified text
4. Insert a word where a discretionary hyphen would fall within the 3-letter prohibited zones
   • Example: Insert discretionary hyphen in "example" as "ex•ample" (where • represents the discretionary hyphen)
   • This discretionary hyphen falls in the "Before Last 3 Letters" zone
5. Force line break to require hyphenation of this word

Expected Result

Word should not hyphenate at all, since the only allowed break point (discretionary hyphen) falls within the prohibited zone.

Actual Result

InDesign ignores the discretionary hyphen and hyphenates the word using automatic rules at a different location (e.g., "exam-ple").

Impact

Severity: Medium to High

• Typography Quality: Undermines precise typographic control
• Workflow Disruption: Manual intervention required to fix each occurrence
• Consistency Issues: Unpredictable behavior between discretionary and automatic hyphenation
• Professional Publishing: Affects quality of professional publications where precise hyphenation control is critical

User Groups Affected

• Professional typesetters and designers
• Book and magazine publishers
• Technical documentation teams
• Any users requiring precise hyphenation control

Technical Analysis

Root Cause

The hyphenation engine appears to process the "After/Before Letters" rules after or independently of discretionary hyphen evaluation, rather than respecting the documented hierarchy where discretionary hyphens should override all other hyphenation rules.

Proposed Solution

Modify the hyphenation algorithm to:
1. First check for discretionary hyphens in the word
2. If discretionary hyphen found: Evaluate if it falls within prohibited zones
3. If in prohibited zone: Do not hyphenate the word at all
4. If outside prohibited zone: Use only the discretionary hyphen break point
5. Only if no discretionary hyphen: Apply automatic hyphenation rules with zone restrictions

Workarounds

Current Workarounds (Inefficient)

1. Manual intervention: Individually edit each problematic word break inserting discretiona hyphen at start of word to prevent it from breaking.
2. Character Style with No Break: Apply No Break character formatting to words with problematic discretionary hyphens
3. Adjust zone settings: Reduce "After/Before Letters" values (compromises typography for other words)
4. Remove discretionary hyphens: Use only automatic hyphenation (loses manual control)

Limitation of Workarounds

All workarounds require manual identification and correction of each instance, making them impractical for large documents or automated workflows.

Documentation References

Adobe InDesign Help: Text Composition

• URL: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/text-composition.html
• Relevant Quote: "Entering a discretionary hyphen in a word does guarantee that the word can be broken only where the discretionary hyphen appears."

Hyphenation Settings Documentation

• After First / Before Last Letters: "Specify the minimum number of characters at the beginning or end of a word that can be broken by a hyphen."

Additional Information

Related Features That Work Correctly

• Discretionary hyphens function properly when they fall outside the prohibited zones
• "After/Before Letters" settings work correctly with automatic hyphenation
• No Break character formatting consistently prevents hyphenation

Test Case Suggestions

Adobe should test various combinations of:
- Different "After/Before Letters" values (2, 3, 4, 5 characters)
- Discretionary hyphens at different positions within words
- Various word lengths and compositions
- Different paragraph composers (Adobe Paragraph Composer vs. Single-line Composer)

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Request: Please prioritize this bug fix as it affects fundamental typographic control and contradicts documented behavior. The fix should ensure discretionary hyphens always take absolute precedence over automatic hyphenation rules, including zone restrictions.