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Alignment Brings Order to Chaos

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Visual or Optical Alignment

alignment

Visual alignment accounts for the varying shapes of letters and graphics

Visual or optical alignment fixes some of the problems that can occur with other types of alignment due to the varying shapes of letters and graphics. In visual alignment the objects may not be precisely aligned but to the eye they appear lined up.

In this business card makeover, the original version has the text technically aligned to the left. However, the slant of the cursive font and the large flourish on the V made it appear that the text underneath was not aligned.

In the re-do of the design the non-script text has been visually aligned beneath the point of the cursive V.

Visual alignment applies as much to graphics as to text. When aligning neat squares adjustment may not be necessary but with images of irregular shape it often looks better to ignore small parts that stick out.

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