Breaking Lines Like Pros
Consider the following snippet from this recently published Intellectual Property Update:
Notice the spacing between the words in the next-to-last line.
Now, grab a newspaper, or a magazine, or a book: anything published by a professional publishing company. Scan the right-hand side of a column of fully justified type. Notice that hyphens are used to break some lines. This eliminates giant gaps between words (which tends to annoy readers).
If the firm that published the Intellectual Property Update relied on a production editor to produce the update, the above snippet would have been set like so:
A big deal? No. Just another detail. And a convenience for readers.
11 December 2007 at 10:23
This drives me up the wall! Justified text looks so hideous without proper copyediting, especially when people insist on using two spaces after a period. I am constantly changing the documents that come my way to left-aligned, because justified text is so difficult to read!
11 December 2007 at 19:32
Full justification is evil! At least in word processing documents. I like this post at Adams Drafting:
http://adamsdrafting.com/system/2007/05/03/justified-text-versus-ragged-right-text/
Except that he also says not to put two spaces between a period and the first word of the next sentence. That’s a habit I just won’t break. I think a single space looks terrible.
11 December 2007 at 19:41
It doesn’t matter what YOU think.
Not if you’re trying to get people to read what you publish.
What matters is what THEY think.
Once again, look at what people are used to reading: newspapers, magazines, books. Everyone’s used to one space after a stop.