4 ms·
> It might seem that way to the eye at first, but in reality, it just ain't so I'm going to look into this more, thanks.
by thecombjelly 16y ago
> It might seem that way to the eye at first, but in reality, it just ain't so
I'm going to look into this more, thanks.
- Groxx 16y ago"rivers" and weird spacing from the OP's first link are a bit distracting, yeah, but here's my personal easy-to-believe reason for non-justified text: Ragged edges make it easier to detect different lines of text, because you can see the lengths easily. This makes it harder to lose your place, and easier to slide your eyes back to the left edge to continue reading. Every subtle clue to your location is helpful for quicker reading, and justified text pretty much destroys it. And personally, quicker often == easier, as if you can read it quicker, it somewhat implies a lower "cost" to the mechanics of reading that text.
- thecombjelly 16y agoMakes sense to me. I guess the way I see it is that justified text makes it look cleaner when you are just looking at the text from afar. To actually read it though, the difference in line length seems like it would help make reading easier.
- petercooper 16y agoRagged edges make it easier to detect different lines of text, because you can see the lengths easily. Another way of looking at it is in the Y dimension. It's almost gospel now that we read fluently by scanning the tops of letters, so having letters of varying heights and upper shape improves readability. Turning this around, it might be fair to intuit that ragged right provides similar benefits in vertical scanning and place keeping.