RE: Justified versus ragged right? (take II)

Subject: RE: Justified versus ragged right? (take II)
From: "McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>
To: "Sean Brierley" <sbrierley -at- Accu-Time -dot- com>, "TECHWR-L List" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:47:27 -0400

Sean Brierley responding to Geoff Hart's assertion that fully justified
text became a publishing standard because it was more space-efficient in
long-ish books:

> I just tested this by making all my body text fully justified--don't
> want to do that with lists as the inter-word spacing could be huge.
>
> For a FrameMaker file, a chapter in my book, I saw no change in page
> count. The reality in this case is that numbered lists, the occasional
> note, the many graphics, and other factors absorb any significant
> efficiency of justified text.
>
> Also, with regard to readability, don't you find that varying the
space
> between words, even over a 5-inch text column, leads to the space
> between sentences becoming hidden ... and the full stop being less
> noticeable ... so perhaps (the dreaded) two spaces between sentences
> becomes appropriate?
>
> Still, all anecdotal really.

It's good that you'd take the time to test, but I think that you and
Geoff are discussing apples and oranges.

Your orange is a technical book with, as you say, all kinds of content
that's not simple body text.

Geoff's apples are probably the bulk of what gets published in large
quantity - novels... although, these days, diet and self-help books
might be giving fiction a run. But then, the question was how the
convention originally came about, back in the day.

- Kevin



The information contained in this electronic mail transmission
may be privileged and confidential, and therefore, protected
from disclosure. If you have received this communication in
error, please notify us immediately by replying to this
message and deleting it from your computer without copying
or disclosing it.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word or
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals.
http://www.doctohelp.com

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat


References:
Justified versus ragged right? (take II): From: Geoff Hart
RE: Justified versus ragged right? (take II): From: Sean Brierley

Previous by Author: RE: Justified versus ragged right
Next by Author: RE: Misc: A warning to neologizers
Previous by Thread: RE: Justified versus ragged right? (take II)
Next by Thread: Justified versus ragged right? (take II)


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads