Because the large uneven spaces are also magnified it can become difficult for the to follow the words with their magnifying software. Many magnifiers work by enlarging the area around your mouse. Visually impaired users often use screen magnifiers to enlarge text to a suitable level.Around 10% of the UK population are affected by dyslexia to some degree, so making a website that is difficult for 10% of users to read is obviously a bad idea! As web designers we spend time testing in different browsers to make sure as many people as possible can view the website as intended. The uneven white space creates a distraction which can easily make you lose your place. A combination of the first two points make justified text difficult to read by dyslexic users.In some cases the white space can form more of a logical pattern than the content itself. This river within the text draws the eye away from the content making it more difficult to read. This is when the spaces between words line up with other lines of text, creating a column of space down the content. The different rendering on different systems can create “rivers” of white space.
#HOW TO ADD A JUSTIFY TEXT IN HTML WINDOWS#
For example a person using Firefox 3 browser on a Mac, would likely see the text displayed differently to somebody using Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP. However, with the many combination of website browsers (and versions) on many different operating systems, a website designer can not be certain how the justified text will be rendered on the screen. When using justified text for print, the designer has complete control over how the user will see the content.Here are the top reasons why justified text is a bad idea for websites Reading on a computer screen is much harder on the eyes than reading from printed media. You may not be aware but the image on a screen is not static, in fact its updated and refreshed many times a second. The human eye perceives images on a screen different to that of printed media so its understandable that justified text can work, but not necessarily on a computer screen. There are many reasons why not to use justified text and they revolve around usability and user experience. Why is justified text on websites a bad idea? With such a large amount of information to place on a large area, the neatly aligned columns clearly define the different areas of text and create a logical flow of words, thus enhancing readability. Newspapers are a great example of justified text used successfully. Justified text is commonly used in printed media such as newspapers, book, leaflets etc where the straight line on each margin can be used successfully to guide the eye across columns of text. To achieve this effect, extra space is added between words. Justified text or justification, in typography, is the alignment of text within a column or measure to align against the left and right margin. What is justified text and when is it used? However, in some cases, clients had decided to have justified text regardless. In most cases we’ve successfully explained the pitfalls of justified text and the client has agreed to keep the standard left alignment. That text would look much neater justified, can you change it please? In the past we’ve had several clients say: To begin, I would like to explain my reasons for writing this blog post. Can justified text be justified for the web? The answer, in case you were wondering, is no! As you continue to read this article I will explain the disadvantages of justified text, and when it should be used.