From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/25673 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Russ Allbery Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Re: highlighting and fontification Date: 05 Oct 1999 15:49:36 -0700 Sender: owner-ding@hpc.uh.edu Message-ID: References: <199909152213.SAA72350@alderaan.gsfc.nasa.gov> <87670l7v5p.fsf@pc-hrvoje.srce.hr> NNTP-Posting-Host: coloc-standby.netfonds.no X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1035163016 15255 80.91.224.250 (21 Oct 2002 01:16:56 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 01:16:56 +0000 (UTC) Return-Path: Original-Received: from spinoza.math.uh.edu (spinoza.math.uh.edu [129.7.128.18]) by sclp3.sclp.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id SAA12388 for ; Tue, 5 Oct 1999 18:55:26 -0400 (EDT) Original-Received: from sina.hpc.uh.edu (lists@Sina.HPC.UH.EDU [129.7.3.5]) by spinoza.math.uh.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id RAB25355; Tue, 5 Oct 1999 17:51:09 -0500 (CDT) Original-Received: by sina.hpc.uh.edu (TLB v0.09a (1.20 tibbs 1996/10/09 22:03:07)); Tue, 05 Oct 1999 17:51:51 -0500 (CDT) Original-Received: from sclp3.sclp.com (root@sclp3.sclp.com [204.252.123.139]) by sina.hpc.uh.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id RAA07545 for ; Tue, 5 Oct 1999 17:51:42 -0500 (CDT) Original-Received: from windlord.stanford.edu (windlord.Stanford.EDU [171.64.12.23]) by sclp3.sclp.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id SAA12329 for ; Tue, 5 Oct 1999 18:49:45 -0400 (EDT) Original-Received: (qmail 2004 invoked by uid 50); 5 Oct 1999 22:49:36 -0000 Original-To: ding@gnus.org In-Reply-To: Hrvoje Niksic's message of "05 Oct 1999 16:13:22 +0200" Original-Lines: 24 X-Mailer: Gnus v5.4.66/Emacs 19.34 Precedence: list X-Majordomo: 1.94.jlt7 Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:25673 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general:25673 Hrvoje Niksic writes: > François Pinard writes: >> Let's take the simultaneous left-right justification. It has been >> demonstrated that for fixed width fonts, it hurts legibility and >> decreases reading speed. > Does somebody have more info about this? I've heard the claim that > justification decreased legibility of texts written in fixed-width fonts > many time, but I've never seen an explanation on why that is so, or a > reference to research. Left-right justification, when done with word choice and careful attention to line length, should be as legible as normal ragged-right text. Perhaps slightly more legible because it's aesthetically pleasing; that's a matter of personal taste. When it is done by inserting more white space into the text, however, it disrupts the normal flow of inter-word spacing, which is highly distracting for the reader's eye. We're used to inter-word spacing being uniform throughout the text; extra spacing stands out, causes longer pauses in reading, and sets off as specially significant breaks which have no special meaning. -- Russ Allbery (rra@stanford.edu)