To Justify, Or Not To Justify

It seems my post on ‘web naughties’ — and my secret love for justified text — provoked more thought and opinion than I expected. It seems that quite a few people have a view on the subject, be it positive or negative.

Aisling posted an interesting comment using her experience with the CNIB as reasoning behind her viewpoint, and it made sense. However, Dee also posted a follow-up entry using her own eye ‘ailments’ as backing of her viewpoint which also made sense. This does leave those of us with little knowledge beyond what we’ve read in a bit of a pickle.

It just so happened that on the day after I posted my entry I was flicking through the designer magazine at work and realised that every page in the (very beautifully laid out) magazine used left-aligned text. Now, as both a reader of various print materials and someone who has read a gazillion articles on why justified text is OK in print, I was somewhat surprised. Instead of pondering the question I simply shot out an e-mail asking whether or not the reason was practical or aesthetic and, to my surprise, received a response this morning.

Jeff Cooper, Art Director for Designer, explains his reasoning for choosing left-aligned text:

My decision to left-align the text was for both aesthetic and practical reasons - I would argue that because the main role of typography is to get a reader to actually read the text the two areas can not be treated independently.

Justified text, especially when used with narrow columns, produces unsightly ‘rivers’ of space where the words are forced to the column edges. Aesthetically this is not very attractive. Practically, it makes it hard to read because the eye has to jump about to find the next word.

Left justified text also makes the text more easily digestible. People live busy lives and most read a magazine by dipping in and out of it. Making the text easily accessible is important.

White space is an important component of Designer. Left-aligned text contributes to this as justified text can sometimes appear blocky and regimented - especially if combined with a lot of rectangular images.

Jeff also included some information on leading, typesetting and typography but it goes beyond the scope of this entry. I might cover it another day. Anyway, there we have a professional designer choosing left-aligned text over justified text. Whether it be purely speculative reasoning or a decision based on expertise and education, it does show that the decision affects more than just us humble personal website owners and that logic has to be applied to come to the right conclusion for your audience.

Personally, I believe that Dee was definitely right in one thing: readability is not an exact science; because so much of it is subjective. What one person finds easier to read another may find impossible, and whether or not we play it safe and try to accommodate all or take a risk for the sake of our own preferences, we are never going to please 100% of people, 100% of the time.

(I’d just like to say a big thanks to Wendy and Jeff at Designer for taking the time to read and digest my e-mail; Jeff in particular, your input was very much appreciated!)