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Tamara Reyes-Muralles wonders: <<I just received the first draft of my
brochure. The graphic artist justified all the text. I thought I had read
that text should be left-aligned because people can read left-aligned text
easier.>>
That's a pernicious myth. Professionally typeset text should be equally
legible whether left-justified (ragged right) or fully justified (both
margins squared). The problem with full justification (and the origin of
this myth) is that few people take the time to fix the rivers of white space
and the uneven spacing that can result if you're using typographically naive
software such as Word or even if you're using typographically sophisticated
software such as Frame, Quark, PageMaker. InDesign sets the best type you
can produce on a PC or Mac, but you still have to know how to tweak the
typographic settings.
<<Should I change the justification?>>
What's your justification for the change? <g> No, seriously! If the text is
clean and legible, and complements the design, let it stand. If there are
problems with white space or bad line breaks, sit down with the designer and
use hyphenation to fix them. (As in all aspects of our business,
collaborate, don't dictate. Work together, not against each other.)
<<What is best for a brochure? Does the answer really come down to what I
like?>>
There's no "best" answer. A superior design must be both legible (see above)
and esthetic. The latter is far more subjective, but there are many
possibilities that all produce superior designs.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
(try ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca if you get no response)
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"I don't read literary theory anymore; it makes my brain hurt... I have way
too much time on my hands and way too little to think about. In this
respect, the laundromat is not much different from the English department
office."--Tim Morris, U of Texas English professor ("Suds", in _The American
Scholar_)
