---
name: Justified text
slug: justified-text
category: typography
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
definition: Text set so both edges of the column are flush, achieved by
  stretching or squeezing the spaces between words on each line.
aliases:
  - name: justification
  - name: full justification
  - name: flush left and right
  - name: "text-align: justify"
    source: css
tags:
  - editorial
  - spacing
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - hyphenation
    - rag
  variantOf: []
  partOf: []
  seeAlso: []
implementations: []
sources:
  - title: Justified text (Practical Typography)
    url: https://practicaltypography.com/
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: you want both edges of a column flush
---

Justification is a trade, not a setting. The line has to arrive at the right
margin exactly, and the only thing available to stretch is the word spaces, so
every line ends up with spaces of a different width from its neighbours. Where a
line happens to hold few words, or one very long one, those spaces open up into
gaps, and gaps that line up down the column read as pale vertical channels
running through the text. Typographers call them rivers, and once you can see
them you cannot unsee them.

Print solves this with hyphenation and with judgement. A hyphenation dictionary
gives the line breaker more places to break, so it can take a fragment of a long
word down to the next line rather than stretching four spaces to cover it, and a
good engine considers the whole paragraph at once, choosing the set of breaks
with the lowest total badness rather than greedily filling one line at a time.
That is what Knuth and Plass wrote for TeX, and it is why a justified book page
looks calm and a justified web page usually does not.

Browsers are getting closer but they are not there. `text-align: justify` is a
greedy line breaker, so it commits to each line without knowing what the next one
costs, and `hyphens: auto` needs the language declared (a `lang` attribute the
browser has a dictionary for) before it will break a word at all. Without
hyphenation, justification at a narrow [measure](/measure) is the worst case
possible: fewer words per line means each space carries more of the stretch.
`text-wrap: pretty` improves the rag and the last line, and
`text-justify: inter-character` exists for scripts that need it, but the missing
piece is still whole-paragraph optimisation.

So the practical rule: justify only with hyphenation on, only at a comfortable
measure, and prefer flush left (ragged right) everywhere else, which is what
almost every interface should do. Flush left keeps one word space throughout, and
a rag the eye uses to keep its place. Justified text also interacts badly with
things a UI cannot control: a long URL, a proper noun that cannot be broken, or a
reader who has zoomed, each of which turns one line into a row of islands.