Which Type of Paragraph Alignment Aligns Text at Both the Right and Left Margins?
Most word processing and desktop publishing programs left justify paragraph text by default. This results in a clean left margin and a ragged right edge. Aligning text at both the right and left sides provides a cleaner look and easier readability in some situations, such as column layout. However, this method of paragraph alignment can produce unattractive text and make documents harder to read.
Other People Are Reading
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Benefits
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Fully justified text lends itself well to professional documents and column layout. Newspapers often use this type of paragraph alignment to keep text in columns visually distinct and aid story readability. You can also simply call this type of paragraph alignment justification or flush right and left. Justified text works well in formal documents and traditional-style books, where a crisp appearance is paramount.
Readability
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Justified paragraphs sometimes develop readability problems, especially for dyslexics and others who have text-scanning difficulties. Early word processors used mono-spaced fonts and justified lines by inserting extra spaces; this type of justification produces a text block with gaps that interrupt reading. More modern justification techniques reduce this problem but still suffer from comprehension problems. Full justification adds space between some words and hyphenates others, which can make it hard to scan paragraphs quickly.
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Layout Problems
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Using fully-justified paragraphs increases the risk of several typographic problems, called rivers, widows and orphans. Rivers are trails of white space running through the paragraph. Caused by the addition of space between words, these negative areas can jump out and attract more attention than the words themselves. Widows and orphans are single words or short lines left at the end of a paragraph or the top or bottom of a page. Both left and right justification carry a risk of widows and orphans, but full justification causes them more frequently, since it changes the length of the text.
Prevention/Solution
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To ensure good readability in justified text, go over it by hand and realign problem words. Consider turning the document upside down to identify rivers, which can be harder to see from a normal perspective. Use kerning and minute adjustments to character size to keep difficult words from hyphenating and pull widows and orphans back into the main text. Never simply import a document into a layout program without minutely examining the formatting.
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References
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