Hyphenation should be suppressed by using a language with no patterns, setting \lefthyphenmin>=64, or \hyphenpenalty>=10000 (\hyphenchar=-1 works on a font-by-font basis). However, setting a good pretolerance should help in optimizing performance. I'm not sure whether it is better to use -1 to suppress the first pass or \tolerance to avoid the second pass (and attempted hyphenation) whenever possible.

(I seem to be a real spoil-sport tonight.)

Donald Arseneau

|Having a paranoid dislike of hyphenation, I was wondering if there's
|any way I can turn off *all* hyphenation in my LaTeX?

FAQ.

Of those three, the third is what TeX wants us to do.

Dr Yoshimasa Tsuji

% FYI, \hyphenchar\font=-1 is so far the simplest way to disable % hyphenations (I already mentioned it).

I hate to jump into this debate, but this is a {it ridiculous} statement. For instance, if I were to follow your advice, there's a chance this paragraph would have a hyphen in it.

Setting a high pretolerance works in most but not all circumstances. Setting hyphenchar to -1 works always, but you have to do it for every font you have loaded, at every size. This is not simple.

Setting \lefthyphenmin to 64 works always, provided you're using a TeX less than seven years old. Switching to a language without hyphenation patterns works always (with the same proviso). These are both simple.

Patrick TJ McPhee