Justified or ragged?
Posted by dilettante on April 5, 2007
In order to read text comfortably, you must be able to find the beginning of each consecutive line quickly and easily over and over again. The English language is read left to right. Your word processor or editor will often be set so that the left edge of each line is aligned with the left margin.
If the copy is centred, or is aligned on the right only, the reader has to search to find the beginning of each line.
Therefore, if preparing long columns of text, justified, or aligned left with ragged right are the only two prudent choices.
If your text columns are narrow, justified text can be difficult to read because the lines often become noticeably letter-spaced and have excessive wordspacing leaving rivers of white space within the text, and making some paragraphs look darker than others. When using narrow column widths, it’s better to set your columns aligned on the left and ragged right.
