Yesterday I learned: \startsetups[*default] \widowpenalties 3 10000 1000 0 \clubpenalties 3 10000 1000 0 \orphanpenalties 2 8000 1000 \stopsetups If I want the penalty settings applied to “everything” (after defining the layout, I think?), then I need the setup "*defaults". Since TeX uses a club against orphans (brutal!), I’m not sure what \orphanpenalty is for. I remember \twinpenalty is against doubled words (below each other?), and \toddlerpenalty against single letter words at the end of a line (why “toddler”?). widows and clubs get only 150 in TeX, but 2000 in ConTeXt, as far as I could find. Are there more penalties that make sense to set individually? WRT demerits: Did I understand correctly that demerits are the “sum” (some formula) of badness and penalties in a line or paragraph? Hraban