Hi all, At the end of June, Hans uploaded a new lmtx version which included improvements to par building which he and Mikael had been working on in math mode. Hans suggested in the online chat that these improvements may be useful in typesetting novels. I was keen to try these since I have typset novels in the past. I have ran some tests on two novels which I downloaded from the Gutenberg Project site as epubs and extracted them to get the original xhtml files which I then typeset in context. I made very little in the way of changes to the files so that my setup for xml was very simple. Here are my setups for the layout of the novels showing some trackers that were used as well: \definepapersize[pagee][width=5.06in,height=7.81in] \setuppapersize[pagee] % XML setups here \startsetups[grid][mypenalties] \setdefaultpenalties \setpenalties\widowpenalties{1}{150} \setpenalties\clubpenalties {1}{150} \stopsetups \setuplayout[ width=10cm, topspace=0.5in, backspace=2.0cm, header=7.5mm, footer=0.25in, location={middle,middle}, vs=2, grid=yes, setups=mypenalties ] %\enabletrackers[makeup] %\enabletrackers[builders.hpack.quality] \enabletrackers[builders.hpack.overflow] %\enabletrackers[layout.vz] %\enabletrackers[paragraphs.passes] \enabletrackers[paragraphs.passes=summary] %\enabletrackers[paragraphs.passes=details] \setupalign[granular] %\setupalign[nothyphenated,hz,verytolerant] %\setupalign[vertical,height] %\setupalignpass[decent] %\setupalignpass[quality] %\setupalignpass[test1] \setupalignpass[test2] %\setupalignpass[test3] %\setupalignpass[test4] %\setupalignpass[test5] %\setupalignpass[optional1] %\setupalignpass[test2b] \starttext \setuppagenumbering[location={footer,middle},alternative=doublesided,state=start] \setcounter[userpage][1] %\showmakeup[vbox] %\showlayout \dostepwiserecurse{0}{30}{1}{ \xmlprocessfile{mysetups}{/path to xhtml files/4439720318703948998_84-h-\recurselevel.htm.xhtml}{} } \stoptext Below are the result showing the number of overfull boxes for these novels using the setups in the file spac-imp-tests.mkxl . See the manual Low Level - Lines Test Novel1 Novel2 Test1 70 35 Test2 30 8 Test3 62 23 Test4 89 40 Test5 28 9 Optional1 55 19 Quality 74 32 Decent 39 11 From these initial tests one can see that Test2 gave the lowest number of overfull boxes. So I edited test two, ran it, and the results are below. Test Novel1 Novel2 Test2b 11 0 My setup for test 2b is as follows: \startsetups align:pass:test2b \pretolerance 100 \tolerance 200 \parpasses 3 classes \indecentparpassclasses threshold 0.025pt tolerance 800 extrahyphenpenalty 50 next threshold 0.025pt tolerance 900 adjustspacing 3 adjustspacingstep 1 adjustspacingshrink 10 adjustspacingstretch 15 next threshold 0.025pt tolerance 1000 adjustspacing 3 adjustspacingstep 1 adjustspacingshrink 20 adjustspacingstretch 40 emergencystretch .25\bodyfontsize \relax % \linebreakpasses\plusone \stopsetups The only difference between test 2 and 2b are that I increased the tolerance in each of the three passes. In novel 2 this was successful in eliminating the overfull boxes but not in Novel 1 although I noticed that majority of overfull boxes were above 1pt with the largest about 12pt in Novel 1. I am at the stage now where I need some kind of strategy to reduce/eliminate overfull boxes, other than changing the tolerance, and I'm hoping for some advice from the community. Suggestions for further reading particularly on the commands in \setupalignpass and their usage would be appreciated and on the best way to tackle overfull boxes. Best Wishes Keith McKay