Hyphenation -- good research into reading speed and comprehension?

[JX Consulting <JX -at- jxconsulting -dot- com>]

Is there any good research into reading speed and comprehension of  
unhyphenated English versus hyphenated English? I just mean  
hyphenation due to end of line, not about words with naturally having  
hyphens whereever they appear on the line :-)

I'm skeptical about hyphenation of technical documentation.  Maybe I'm  
wired differently than other folks, but it seems to hinder  
comprehension and reading speed, as well as look distracting. Yeah, I  
get it that lines can be more "full looking", but that's not even  
necessarily more aesthetically pleasing. And for documentation, we're  
optimizing for people actually reading it, especially quickly, and  
learning quickly. And it doesn't seem worth it to me to hyphenate if  
that's what we're going for.

 From what I've read online**, the hyphenation of words for line  
length was originally just an artifact of the physical limitations of  
old moveable type presses, and just got carried over into the future  
from there.

I want to know the facts on this. Is there any reputable research  
about the actual reading of hyphenated English? I am curious about  
various types of data: (1) neurotypical folks -- the general  
population  (2) dyslexic populations (3) and of course folks leaning  
towards Aspergers - people more likely to be readers of our technical  
docs. :-)

Thanks for any good tips!

     -- JX Bell
         Technical Communication Consultant
         JX Consulting


*** According to wikipedia, "Prior to Gutenberg setting the first  
lines printed in the Western world with movable type, there was no  
need for hyphens or the justification of lines to equal length. The  
Gutenberg printing press required words made up of individual letters  
of type to be held in place by a surrounding non-printing rigid frame.  
Gutenberg solved the problem of making each line the same length to  
fit the frame by inserting a hyphen as the last element at the right  
side margin. This interrupted the letters in the last word, requiring  
the remaining letters be carried over to the start of the line  
below..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphenation



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