If they are both wrong, then what’s right? Alignment is only a small piece of the puzzle. What works for one design might be totally inappropriate for another layout. As with all layouts, it depends on the purpose of the piece, the audience and its expectations, the fonts, the margins and white space, and other elements on the page. The most appropriate choice is the alignment that works for that particular design.
About Fully-Justified Text
- Often considered more formal, less friendly than left-aligned text.
- Usually allows for more characters per line, packing more into the same amount of space (than the same text set left-aligned).
- May require extra attention to word and character spacing and hyphenation to avoid unsightly rivers of white space running through the text.
- May be more familiar to readers in some types of publications, such as books and newspapers.
- Some people are naturally drawn to the "neatness" of text that lines up perfectly on the left and right.
Traditionally many books, newsletters, and newspapers use full-justification as a means of packing as much information onto the page as possible to cut down on the number of pages needed. While the alignment was chosen out of necessity, it has become so familiar to us that those same types of publications set in left-aligned text would look odd, even unpleasant.
You may find that fully-justified text is a necessity either due to space constraints or expectations of the audience. If possible though, try to break up dense blocks of texts with ample subheadings, margins, or graphics.
About Left-Aligned Text
- Often considered more informal, friendlier than justified text.
- The ragged right edge adds an element of white space.
- May require extra attention to hyphenation to keep right margin from being too ragged.
- Generally type set left-aligned is easier to work with (i.e. requires less time, attention, and tweaking from the designer to make it look good).
Comparisons, Examples, and the Bottomline on the Best Text Alignment to Use
Quotable Design
| “Right and wrong do not exist in graphic design. There is only effective and non-effective communication.” — Peter Bilak - Illegibility |
| Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. |
| “Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or doing it better.” — John Updike |
