Every book in my office and every book at my home, fiction and
nonfiction, has justified text, the only exceptions being some
children's books, in particular the ones with just a sentence or two on
each page, which are set ragged right. When the text width is very
narrow or the font size very large -- if the text is set in columns,
for example, or on a page of advertising -- then ragged right avoids
the uneven word spacing and reduces the number of hyphens that
justified text would produce. All monospaced fonts and some unserifed
faces look better on the page in ragged right, even at normal text
widths. In general, though, publishers set texts in justified type,
except in rare cases.
If you decide to set ragged right, make sure your word processor does
an "honest rag," with a fixed word space and no hyphenation. Some
programs, if left to their own devices, will vary the word spaces and
hyphenate even in ragged right. Robert Bringhurst, in The Elements of
Typographic Style, says this makes the "text look like a neatly pinched
piecrust. This approach combines the worst features of justification
with the worst features of ragged setting, while eliminating the
principal virtues of both."
Bruce
On Friday, December 16, 2005, at 03:32 PM, Rich Shepard wrote:
On Sat, 17 Dec 2005, John O'Gorman wrote:
Which you guys think is better, ragged right or justified right?
It's a book of short stories.
I think that justified right creates the appearance of
professionalism.
Studies have shown that it is a little easier to read ragged right.
It is a book of short stories intended for what audience?
I was thinking about of friend of mine who has been a computer
technician for over 15 years. He is very successful because he has
a high mechanical aptitude and a computer is a machine. He can
also fix a furnace or a washing machine. Critical thinking is also an
excellent tool and serves well in other aspects of life. But, I
agree with
and respect the observation of the 30th President, Calvin Coolidge,
and so if you are ever looking for a good quote for a book, I suggest
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will
not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education
will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and
determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has
solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."
Which justification of the above 3 pagragraphs do you alike?
They all appear ragged right on my mail client (Ximian Evolution)!
In pine they're all ragged right.
The question does come down to artistic license. Most non-fiction,
technical books are typeset with full justification ... and
hyphenation. Many
novels are set ragged right justification. I suspect the latter is
considered
less formal and better suited to the fiction market. Assuming Steve's
short
stories are fiction, keeping the lines uneven would work well.
One thing that I've noticed since I started typesetting my writing
with
LyX/LaTeX is how many books are printed from processed word
submittals. The
variation in word and sentence spacing jumps right off the page at me.
I
don't see this in a book that has been typeset with the paragraph as
the
calculation unit (rather than the line that word processors use).
Perhaps
it's just me, but I see the unevenness and it's distracting.
Rich
--
Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D. | Author of "Quantifying
Environmental
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM) | Impact Assessments Using
Fuzzy Logic"
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com> Voice: 503-667-4517 Fax:
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