Justifying or Ragging Text, Margin Alignment | Formatting Tips

This post is a little different to my usual. Instead of focusing on writing, usage, or linguistics, I’m writing about formatting, specifically about alignment and whether to justify or rag text. Definitions and explanations are provided as are several resources for additional reading. For clarification, the information provided here is based on scripts set in roman letters with a left-to-right orientation—English, French, Spanish, etc. Other left-to-right languages like Korean have different standards because of the nature of their alphabets and the arrangement of letters, so this information doesn’t really apply. Right-to-left languages, such as Arabic or Hebrew, would obviously also have different standards.

Definitions

With the introduction out of the way, let’s start with some definitions and examples.

Justification

In terms of formatting, justification is related to text alignment, not validation or reasoning. For our purposes, there are two types of justification, left justification and full justification. They do roughly the same thing, align text into a block on both the left and right margins. Left justification, not to be confused with left alignment, aligns the left and right margins evenly, except for the last line. The last line of a paragraph ends where the paragraph ends with extra space on the right.

Full justification, on the other hand, aligns all lines left and right, including the last line. Pay attention to the last line, obvious issues.

Left Alignment

Left alignment, which is also called ragged-right or flush-left text, is what you are looking at here on LinkedIn. The left margin aligns as a flush block while the right margin breaks to create a ragged look.

Aligning Text and Readability

Deciding what kind of alignment works best for you depends on the context as well as the text size, margin size, and other factors, such as a publisher’s preference. Text flowing over a series of pages (body text) is not treated the same as large header and title text, which need special treatment. The information here assumes we are dealing with body text.

Chicago (2017, 66), Maynard-Smith (2021, 18), Petelin (2022, 166), and Sabin (2011, 459) recommend not using justified text when typing in a word processor for several reasons, but the most represented reason is readability.

Pushing the text to the right margin to make a solid block on the right margin creates uneven spacing between words, letters, and punctuation, which is most pronounced in the full justification example above, but it also exists more subtly in the left justified text. Maynard-Smith says that these gaps in the text, which are called rivers and valleys, can make reading up to 10 percent more difficult, especially for readers with dyslexia. The other sources mentioned support this idea but don’t give specific statistics. (It is also important to note that professional layout programs in the hands of a digital typesetter can resolve issues with unevenly spaced justified text, but I am talking about straight typing into a word processor, which is not the same.)

Another issue related to readability is that the rag on the right margin helps guide readers from one line to the next, which is a positive. Without the rag, reading can be slowed a bit, meaning that communication can be compromised. However, ragged-right text isn’t a cure-all either. Ragged text can sometimes create awkward visual patterns that can distract readers. If the rag calls too much attention to itself, like creating stealth triangles, manually adding soft returns (CTRL + Enter) or optional hyphens (CTRL + - ) can help considerably. Hyphens are a big topic, and I’ll will write about them in the coming weeks.

Conclusion

Justified text is complicated, especially in word processing documents; left alignment is usually the best choice. However, as mentioned, simply applying a default tool to have ragged text doesn’t automatically increase readability either. Consider how the document appears, and use judgement about whether the rag will help or hinder readability, and manually adjust lines as needed. If you are genuinely serious about making your document easier to read and are intending to self-publish, consider learning about typography and how to use Adobe InDesign (or similar DTP software).

Also, I hope the irony of me justifying not using justification is apparent.

Resources for Typography

Bringhurst, Robert. 2012. The Elements of Typographic Style. 4th ed. Vancouver: Hartley & Marks Publishers.

French, Nigel. 2018. InDesign Type: Professional Typography with Adobe InDesign. 4th ed. San Francisco: Adobe Press.

Lupton, Ellen. 2010. Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, and Students. 2nd ed. Hudson, NY: Princeton Architectural Press.

References

The Chicago Manual of Style. 17th ed. 2017. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Maynard-Smith, Julian. 2021. Ultimate Guide to Business Writing: Discover all the Secrets of Creating and Managing Business Documents. New York: Routledge.

Petelin, Roslyn. 2022. How Writing Works: A Field Guide to Effective Writing. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.

Sabin, William A. 2011. The Gregg Reference Manual: A Manual of Style, Grammar, Usage, and Formatting—Tribute Edition. 11th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.