Soft or discretionary hyphens are used at the author’s discretion to divide words at the ends of lines of text, also known as non-breaking or optional hyphens.
To achieve this alignment, soft or discretionary hyphens are frequently employed when setting and word-processing justified text, such as breaking words at the ends of lines. When this happens, a discretionary hyphen must be inserted to indicate to the word processor or typesetter that the word can be broken apart there if necessary and ensure the accuracy of results.
Soft or discretionary hyphens may also be employed when writing compound words; for example, “co-op” always uses a hyphen even though it may not always be necessary to divide its words at that point.
Books and publishing use discretionary hyphens to avoid distorting words into an awkward form that could alter their title or cover. Publishers do this to prevent awkward divisions that would change how it looks visually.
Soft hyphens can be helpful to readers when reading words separated by line breaks. A soft hyphen helps the reader see where a word could be divided in two, making reading it more straightforward, mainly if its spelling or length makes reading challenging.
Soft or discretionary hyphens are an invaluable asset to publishers and book designers alike, providing more control over the look and feel of a book while helping create a more uniform appearance. Furthermore, these soft or discretionary hyphens offer greater flexibility for line breaks and page layouts, thus creating more polished and professional books.