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Uh, I think that if you think about this for a moment or two you will
realize that you have jumped to an incorrect conclusion. Unless you
use a hyphenation tool along with justification (applying what printers
used to refer to as "H&J" for "hyphenation and justification"), the
amount of text per line or per page is unchanged by switching between
ragged right and fully justified. Right justification is accomplished by
_expanding_ the inter-word (and inter-letter in better publishing tools)
spacing of lines that do not otherwise reach the right margin; the line
break still occurs between the same two words on each line. Adding
more characters to lengthen a short line won't work unless you either
hyphenate the next word or else decrease the normal spacings within
the line to fit the entire next word. I've noticed this latter technique
in some magazines and journals, and I have to say that I have always
found it very distracting because it never seems to be done subtly.
At a minimum, I notice the "color" of the text block darkening where
the letter spacing is reduced (this is the reverse of the "rivers of
white" problem that results from justification by expansion). At its
worst, justification by compression results in some words that are
virtually unreadable because the letters are so severely jammed
together.
The bottom line is that I've always preferred ragged right, particularly
as the page or column becomes narrower.
BTW, two spaces after a period is really deadly in justified text
because _both_ spaces get expanded to fit the line. In ragged
right text, I tend to prefer two spaces after periods when using
most serif fonts, but one space after a period when using sans
serif. These are personal preferences only, which are subject to
over-ride by established company style guides (although not
without some discussion...).
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Documania [SMTP:dcma -at- MAIL1 -dot- NAI -dot- NET]
>Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 1997 6:22 PM
>Subject: Ragged Right
>
>The best reason I can think of to use justified versus ragged right is that
>you can fit more on a page with justified text. This helps a lot in copy
>fitting. The alternative is to tinker with set width and tracking, which is
>a bit fussier. All depends on time and space available, and your comfort
>level with your software.
>
>Carolyn Haley
>DocuMania
>dcma -at- ct1 -dot- nai -dot- net
>
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