Correct sizing and spacing are essential to good design. And when it comes to type, techniques such as leading, kerning, and tracking are important to know. In the following videos we will learn more about these terms, as well as ways to best organize font using alignment and other space considerations. Text alignment and justification can be a matter of opinion and personal choice. Here we have the four kinds of alignment offered in most computer programs. Flush left, flushed right, centered and justified. But which of these options is the best choice? Let's start by comparing justified and flush left alignment. They both have the same flush alignment on the left, but justified looks kind of like the text is set in a box with exact margins on the left and right. Whereas on the other side, flush left breaks the text with each word, making the right margin ragged with no clear margin. If you're going for balance, it would seem justified would offer that. And it does offer balance when you're referring to the left and right margins. However, since words have to move along the baseline or lower track of the text line, imaginary rivers can start appearing, highlighting large gaps between words. This can be distracting to some readers and even harder to read. On the other hand, if you're not careful, flush left can have unbalanced or just have too much of the ragged edge, such as the example on the left. This can be fixed, such as on the right example, by playing with spacing of letters and margins. Designers also need to be aware of challenges when using left aligned or centered text. Left aligned tends to work better with larger chunks of text, such as the one on the left. But center text can be a good option for headers to draw attention, such as the bottom right example. And it is attention and intention that matter when deciding between flush left, flush right, centered and justified. Where do you want your readers attention to fall but also what is the intention of the message? Now as a general guideline, left aligned text is easier to read than centered text for paragraphs. So if the intention is for the readers to actually read and follow the flow of the text, left aligned is a better option. But when you center text, the starting place of the line changes. And this can cause some of the readers to be disorganised and start forcing your readers to start working harder to find where each line begins to continue reading. So without a straight left edge, there's no consistent place where readers can move there eyes to when they complete each line. And also, keeping the imaginary rivers of space that appear in justified text, you can see here how those rivers or gaps of space are not as noticeable in the top option. But the space between words is more noticeable in the second, or bottom option. Justified text will try to do just that, it will justify how to spread out the text on each line. It's not that this option is truly bad, it's just is it legible and readable? It may seem like I'm pushing left aligned body text, but as mentioned before, there's no absolute correct option other than to remember your intention on where you want your users attention. And even with left aligned text, there are a few issues to consider. Widows are single words left on the line all on their own down at the bottom. Orphans are words that flow to the next column of line and kind of hang out there on there own. Again, it is not that these challenges are bad, it's just design challenges to keep in mind when aligning text. So as you see, there is more to alignment than just placing words on the page. But again, the best option could be a matter of opinion and personal choice. Or better yet, having a design intention of where you want the reader's attention to gravitate. So now, whenever you are having to pick between flush left, flush right, centred or justified, you can keep in mind the various spacing considerations we have just covered. To organise font using the creative challenge as an options of alignment.
