Justification

Used for continuous text

Justification, also referred to as full justification, is commonly used for continuous text in books, and for standard text in magazines.

In justified text, the beginnings and ends of the lines in a paragraph are aligned - i.e. the text falls flush with the left and right margins. In order to avoid unaesthetic spaces between words, it is necessary to check whether word separations could reduce these "holes".

It may also become necessary to adjust character spacing - negatively or positively - to get rid of these spaces. In hot type, spaces that are stretched beyond their normal width are referred to as "loose lines", and lines which are compressed are called "tight lines".

In general, 45 - 75 characters per line is a good example for an adequate line width. In narrow columns, justification is ill-suited because it creates "white holes" within the typeface.

A ragged setting would be more suitable in this case.