Ragged right appears to be gaining ground

I have a confession to make. I am a closet ragged right lover. There, I said it. News design aficionados tend to have pretty strong opinions when it comes to text alignment, so I’ve kept my preferences a secret. Until now.

For centuries left-justified has been the norm, so to stray away from convention is to welcome ridicule. I think it’s time that I break the silence and state my case.

I’ve noticed that several major publications have started to deviate from their left-justified pedigree. Leaving me to believe that there is hope for my kind.

PROS

• No awkward spacing between words
• Text-wrapping around clipped images is easier
• Narrow column widths look much nicer

CONS

• Awkward spacing at the end of lines
• Sometimes it’s perceived as “less neat”
• Takes up more space than justified

I think one of the biggest drawbacks to ragged right is the asymmetrical whitespace created in between legs of text. Some papers, like The Globe And Mail, have chosen to combat this visual distraction by placing a vertical rule in the gutters.

Unfortunately, the justified vs. ragged right debate seems to have created a cavernous divide amongst news designers. Both camps claiming their method is more readable and aesthetically pleasing. The truth of the matter is that the two styles can co-exist in perfect harmony … even within the same publication. Some papers segregate opinion from news by styling all op/ed pieces with ragged right.

I think it’s time to break down those barriers, and give ragged right a chance.