Even the straight right margin in justified text cannot make up for the typographical and illegible catastrophe that results. Hyphenation on the web is still a problem, and as a result the word spacing expands to an unbearable amount, making the text appear blotchy and disharmonious. For example, Gutenberg used over 250 letter variations with widths that differed only slightly in order to achieve balanced typesetting − an unimaginable task in today’s world and impossible on the web, technically speaking. When it comes to dynamic web design, you don’t have this level of control. Well- and evenly justified text is a typographic art that demands an extreme level of design control. Careful, however: lines of equal length and the additional even right edge do smooth out the layout, but at a high price. Justification has a particular role and is created with the parameter text-align:justify in CSS. Apart from a few exceptions − and even then for a few lines only − you are better off not using right-aligned text. Flexible page widths on the web mean that right-aligned text quickly disappears from the focus of the observer and makes it complicated to use. The center axis is considered a notorious amateur mistake and is avoided by the professionals, for good reason. While centered text can have a certain appearance of order at first glance, readability suffers for longer texts because of the lack of even edges for orientation. The justification in the text on the right side has ragged areas that are too large, step-like effects and unsightly separations with only two characters.Īpart from headlines or introductory texts of just a few lines, you should leave the center axis alone. The ragged edge is not too large there are no step-like effects or unsightly separations. Since no separations are generally available in web design, the ragged right edge is not always beautiful more on this below.įigure 1: The text to the left is a good example of justification. In this way, the left-aligned default setting is a good selection and should only be changed with great care. For text that is read from left to right, an even left edge for line breaks is helpful and increases reading comfort.

How to center justify text in html