[Athen] Left-aligned vs justified text

[Chagnon | PubCom]

RE: accessibility, I don't see anything in the current WCAG or PDF/UA
requiring justified or ragged text. If it was there, it would most likely be
under Guideline 3.1 Readable: Make text content readable and understandable.
I do recall that something was in one of them a while back, but it was
inaccurate and I never paid any attention to it.

 

Long discussion with summary at the end:

 

Speaking as a professional graphic designer with substantial research into
design, human behavior, and technology.

 

In the graphic design world, countless studies have been done to determine
whether ragged right (or left aligned) text is more readable than justified.
So far neither has been proven to be better than the other. The most
critical factors in both settings is how well the text is controlled (or in
design-speak, "set") by the designer and by the technology.

 

I've conducted a lot of research on typography during my career and use
these guidelines for my own work as well as in my classes for designers and
developers:

*	In HTML-based digital technologies (websites and EPUBs), left
aligned (ragged right) is best. HTML technologies do not yet have H & J
algorithms (hyphenation and justification) so you can end up with huge gaps
of white space between words and letters when the document is reflowed for
responsive designs, such as on mobile devices.
*	In documents such as Word and PDFs, it depends upon how well the
designer controlled the H & J settings (most don't even know what they are),
the software, the font size, and the line length. There are a lot of
variables!
*	For example, if the designer used Adobe InDesign, most likely either
left aligned or justified will look and behave well because InDesign has the
best H & J algorithms developed for the graphic design industry. 
*	But the ratio between font size and line length is critical; too
large a font on too short a line length and will create terrible text with
white gaps, even from InDesign. 
*	Word's H & J is mediocre; you can end up with horrible text with
huge gaps of white space when it's justified, unless the author knows how to
set type.
*	In any technology, if the designer/developer/author "hardwires" the
justification settings into the file (that is, they did not use CSS or
formatting styles to control the appearance), any technology that needs to
grab the content and alter the presentation to the user will have a
difficult time, regardless of whether justified or left aligned was used. We
really have to train authors and designers to use styles, and never use
manual formatting. It kills responsiveness and adaptability for AT.

And of course, whatever the designer or author does in InDesign or Word is
built into the PDF which gets published.

Summary:

1.	If presented via HTML technologies, use ragged right/left justified
text.
2.	If manually formatted into the content, AT will have some problems
adapting it for the end user. Ragged right would be better, but should still
never be manually formatted or hardwired into the content.
3.	If the PDF's source document was created in Adobe InDesign, either
will be fine for most documents, unless larger fonts are used on narrow
columns.
4.	If the PDF's source document was created in MS Word, it's dicey. Use
ragged right/left justified.

--Bevi Chagnon

 

- - -

Bevi Chagnon |  <http://www.pubcom.com/> www.PubCom.com 

Technologists, Consultants, Trainers, Designers, and Developers

for publishing & communication


| Acrobat PDF | Print | EPUBS | Sec. 508 Accessibility |


- - -

 

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On
Behalf Of Christine Robinson
Sent: Wednesday, July 5, 2017 9:24 AM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Athen] Left-aligned vs justified text

 

Hi -

 

Can anybody tell me, for certain, whether there are accessibility standards
regarding making text left-aligned instead of justified, in both web pages
and electronic documents such as Word and PDF?

 

thanks!

Chris

 

Christine Robinson | Technical Trainer/Writer | Center for Teaching
Excellence

Georgia Gwinnett College | 1000 University Center Lane, Suite A-1020 |
Lawrenceville, GA 30043

678-407-5193 

 

My job is about helping the GGC community make better use of our
commonly-used technology. 

Feel free to ask me for help!

 

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