---
name: Rag
slug: rag
category: typography
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
definition: The uneven edge left by unjustified text, and the thing typographers
  tune so that edge makes no distracting shapes down the side of a paragraph.
aliases:
  - name: ragged right
  - name: ragged edge
  - name: flush left ragged right
  - name: rag right
tags:
  - editorial
  - perception
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - justified-text
    - river
    - hyphenation-ladder
    - text-balancing
  variantOf: []
  partOf: []
  seeAlso: []
implementations: []
sources:
  - title: Typography glossary terms
    url: https://weirdwolf.agency/design-glossary-terms-typography/
  - title: Justified text (Practical Typography)
    url: https://practicaltypography.com/
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: critiquing the uneven edge of a paragraph
---

Set a paragraph flush left and the right side ends wherever each line happens to
end. That edge is the rag, and it is the normal condition of text on screens: the
alternative is [justified text](/justified-text), which buys a straight second
margin by stretching the word spaces and opening rivers down the column. A rag is
not a defect to be fixed. It is a surface with a shape, and the only question is
whether the shape is quiet.

Two shapes are worth learning to see. A hole is two short lines side by side,
which punches a notch into the column that the eye finds before it finds the
words. A staircase is a run of lines stepping evenly in or out, long, short,
long, short, which reads as a pattern and pulls attention to the margin. A third
is a single very short line, a [widow](/widow) at the end of a paragraph, short
enough to look like a mistake. What all three share is that they look deliberate
when nothing about them was.

Tuning a rag is line-break work, and there is more of it available than most
people use. [Hyphenation](/hyphenation) gives the breaker more places to go, so
the lines even out instead of lurching. A
[non-breaking space](/non-breaking-space) glues a number to its unit or a name to
its title so they cannot be split. `text-wrap: balance` and `text-wrap: pretty`
hand the whole decision to the browser, the first evening the lines of a heading
and the second protecting the last line of a paragraph. A hand-placed break is
the last resort, because it is a decision made at one width, and on the web the
width changes.

The craft judgement is how deep the rag should be. A very shallow rag, where
every line ends within a few characters of the last, starts to read as justified
text without the benefits, and typographers push it deeper on purpose so the
edge is clearly informal. A very deep rag makes each line a different journey for
the eye. The usual advice is to work at a sensible [measure](/measure) first,
since most bad rags are a symptom of a column that is too narrow, then read the
edge with the page turned sideways or squinted at, which is how the shapes show
up when the words stop being readable.