Justified Text vs Jagged Right Margin
Most all printed text in media books, magazines, newspapers and magazines are justified. During the process of the new site redesign we decided to set text to be justified. In general I do not have a preference when reading, over justified text or a jagged right margin.
The decision for Ja Kel Daily was made after analyzing the over all look of the site and determining from our opinion mostly that the over all look is better for the site. What do you think?
There have been many debatable arguments made in support of both justified text and keeping with the jagged right margin. Supporters of justified text will tell you that it looks professional but the jaggetors will quickly let you know that it comes at the expense of readability.
My overall observation of the blogosphere is that most everyone is using jagged right margins. Is it time to make a change and go with the mainstream look or are you having trouble reading this article because I’ve justified it?Â
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15 Responses to “Justified Text vs Jagged Right Margin”
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Well, my background is graphic design, and it has been proven from readability studies over the years that justified copy is easier to read.
It looks just fine to me and it makes the text area look full. I had no trouble with readability either.
huh, i never thought of justified text… don’t know how i’d do it in blogspot though.
My old blog design had justified text but I decided to do away with it for my current design. I really don’t think it matters that much, to be honest.
I think the justified text looks good on your blog though, as the design seems to have very strong columned margins… does that even make sense?!?
- Martin Reed
Blogspot has a justify button on the tool bar when writting your article.
Yes, Martin makes since to me.
It’s looking good and I think justified text increases the readability of text. Eventually we will come to know from the comments to this post, how many of them are liking it though. Because this data gonna be the final one to decide for you.
I don’t think being a little rough around the edges is such a bad thing…;)
Of course, there’s personal preference and your layout/design that I think should be factors in the decision.
Some great input so far – thanks
Aesthetically speaking, justified is quite clearly better. However, sometimes it can impact readability especially when don’t hyphenate long words. My two cents worth…
justify is the way to go for it but wordpress has no special button for that??
any suggestions how to make it easier for my blog??
You have to edit your style.css file in your dashboard. Find your blog post content section and add this text-align: justify; to the code.
I believe with your layout and font selection, the full justification looks great and is very readable.
I like to have my post justified. Would you tell me what should I do ?
Justified text is simply not as readable in longer passages as ragged text, for two reasons:
First, the ragged edge gives the eye a sense of positioning within a paragraph. It makes it easier for the eye to go from the end of one sentence to the beginning of the next.
Second, justifying creates rivers, which are vertically-oriented holes in paragraphs created by excess space between words. These restrict readability.
Note that readability is not entirely something that can be determined consciously. Whether you’re cognizant of it or not, your brain has less trouble with ragged-right type than it does with justified type.
Though it must be said that programs like Adobe InDesign are lessening the pain considerably. Just don’t go using Dreamweaver or MS Word to justify type and expect it to be readable!
I think the main concern should be readability to the viewer. Some blogs will look better jagged right, but others justified. I’m not sure there is a set way for every blog that is proven better.