Design Nomenclature / Type
Justification
Also called justified setting, flush both
Setting text flush to both margins by varying the space within each line — chiefly word spacing, with letter spacing and glyph scaling as further, uglier levers. It needs a generous measure and working hyphenation to hold together. Without both it produces rivers, gappy lines, and worse readability than a plain rag.
In practice
text-align: justify without hyphens: auto is the single most common self-inflicted typographic wound on the web. If you can't hyphenate, don't justify.
Not to be confused with
- RagThe uneven edge of unjustified text. A good rag is worked, not accepted: it varies line to line without falling into a wedge, a staircase, or an accidental shape, and it never leaves a one-word line or breaks a name across lines. The reward for leaving it ragged is even word spacing throughout.
- H&JThe rule set governing how lines break and fill: minimum, optimum and maximum word spacing, permitted letter spacing and glyph scaling, how many consecutive hyphens are allowed, minimum characters before and after a break, and the hyphenation zone — the strip at the line's end within which a hyphenated break is permitted.