Using justified type on body copy [duplicate]

Question

I feel like I know the answer to this, but how do you feel about justified type when it comes to common ux principles.

My gut tells me not to use it, but I'd like a better reason than that. I'm finding some issues with dyslexia and users who suffer from it could have a lot of issues reading the type.

Answer 1

Although this could be a matter of opinion for many people, there are some references that may help you to decide.

• Text Treatment and User Experience. Here left alignment is recommended to avoid "rivers" of white space.
• The Perfect Paragraph. In this extensive article from Smashing Magazine, some caveats of justifying text are mentioned alongside the CSS implementations for hyphenation, which can help to get printing results on websites.
• In the article, 6 Surprising Bad Practices That Hurt Dyslexic Users from UXMovement, they mention again the river effect, but focussing on the effect it has on dyslexics.

I personally like it, but is a very common understanding that it is a practice that may waste space on very long texts and may distract the reader due to the "river effect" generated on the white space between words.

Answer 2

In addition, left alignment of text allows for easier scannability. Similar to how there's fast recognition of words based on word shape, I believe the same holds true for paragraphs. It's easier on the eyes to peruse down with a ragged right edge.

Justified text is good from a print perspective because it regulates the shape of the copy texture for the designer and is easier to implement due to the meticulousness that's needed to set type.

On the web, there are too many variables when it comes to digital "Substrate" such as screen size, accessibility, browser type and zoom level that can have a real impact on the exactness of doing justified text properly.