ALIGNMENT
Graphical Glossary

Alignment Placement of elements on a page or in columns, especially text. Horizontal alignment options include flush-left (also called left-justified or ragged right), flush-right (also called right-justified or ragged left), centered, and fully justified. Elements can also be aligned vertically -- top, bottom, or middle (center), for example.

The illustration above shows 1) text aligned to the left margin, 2) text aligned to the right margin, 3) text centered between left and right margins, 4) fully justified text aligned to the left and right margins, and 5) fully justified text with forced justification where the short last line of the paragraph is forced to align to both margins.

Problem Full justification of text can create uneven and sometimes unsightly white spaces and "rivers" of white space in the text. When forced justification is used, if the last line is less than 3/4 of the column width the extra space added between words or letters is especially noticeable and unattractive.

Solution Consider using flush-left alignment. If full justification is necessary, careful attention and minute adjustments to line or column widths, changing the font size of entire document, and adjusting hyphenation can make word and character spacing more consistent.