JET5

Integrated IT for Clinical Staff

Web Typography

Ragged right edge

A typography decision—text justification in paragraphs: fully? Or ragged right edge? This hangs on a number of variables. The general web advice is definitely don't. Yet, fully justified body text is standard in print books and newspapers, and it doesn't jar the eye. Several reasons for avoiding full justification on web-pages are cited. Browsers have been slow to support hyphenation, so, particularly where text is narrow, or there are some long words (for example supercalifragilisticexpealidocious) in the text, word-spacing varies from line to line, and this variation can become large enough to be both noticeable and ugly. In print, slight modifications to letter spacing are made to compensate, but that doesn't apply to html. Full justification and hyphenation worked beautifully in the old MS Edge, but is not great in Chrome (76). This paragraph is rendered both ways—decide for yourself.

Fully justified (nb hyphenation not implemented in Chrome 76 for PC)

A typography decision—text justification in paragraphs: fully? Or ragged right edge? This hangs on a number of variables. The general web advice is definitely don't. Yet, fully justified body text is standard in print books and newspapers, and it doesn't jar the eye. Several reasons for avoiding full justification on web-pages are cited. Browsers have been slow to support hyphenation, so, particularly where text is narrow, or there are some long words (for example supercalifragilisticexpealidocious) in the text, word-spacing varies from line to line, and this variation can become large enough to be both noticeable and ugly. In print, slight modifications to letter spacing are made to compensate, but that doesn't apply to html. Full justification and hyphenation worked beautifully in the old MS Edge, but is not great in Chrome (76). This paragraph is rendered both ways—decide for yourself.