When editors insert new words into a typeset paragraph, the compositor must move the displaced text into the following lines to make room. This cascading adjustment continues until the text hits a natural break, like the end of a paragraph or a short line, where the extra characters can be absorbed. It often forces a reflow of the entire page or column.
Heard on the job
If you add that long sentence in the first paragraph, we'll have to overrun the text all the way to the next page.
Insider tip
Extensive overrunning in metal type was expensive and time-consuming, so authors were traditionally charged for alterations that caused it.
Do not mix it up with
- Runover: Overrun is the action of pushing text forward, while runover is the actual text that spills onto the next page or column.