Format of text

Justification

Prepared by J. Scott Armstrong (details on him at jscottarmstrong.com). Please inform Scott about errors and also make suggestions (armstrong@wharton.upenn.edu) Scott has taken these slides from adprin.com, a site that he founded. That site contains interactive versions of these slides, along with linked references, videos, and webcasts, all in PPT and PPTX format that you can download.

Adapted from AdPrin.com

Which is best, full justification of text or ragged right?

Medieval scribes used full justification. Starting in 1445, the Gutenberg press made their job easier. The first known print ad, written around 1480 for a book, used full justification.Ragged settings on the right was popularized around 1930. It eliminated the need for uneven spacing to fill out lines. In addition, typewriters could not justify text. With computers, however, it is virtually costless to justify text.

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Medieval scribes used full justification. Starting in 1445, the Gutenberg press made their job easier. The first known print ad, written around 1480 for a book, used full justification.Ragged settings on the right was popularized around 1930. It eliminated the need for uneven spacing to fill out lines. In addition, typewriters could not justify text. With computers, however, it is virtually costless to justify text.

See the next page for the evidence.

Adapted from AdPrin.com 3

Consider justification for moderate to long lines of text. (9.4.5.)

Experiments with college students found that comprehension was about 5% greater with justified text than ragged right (Hartley and Burnhill 1971 in Persuasive Advertising p 256).

Format of text

Adapted from AdPrin.com

Based on this exercise, write a small application step for yourself, and set a deadline, preferably within one week. If you are working with someone else, share your application plan and the results of your application.

• For example, identify areas of mid to long lines of text and justify it on the right.