[net.cog-eng] justification and readability

sahunt@warwick.UUCP (Steve Hunt) (07/03/86)

In article <2217@umcp-cs.UUCP> mark@umcp-cs.UUCP writes:
>There has been discussion here some time in the past few months
>regarding both the readability of CRT displays and why justified
>text is bad.  A recent article in Human Factors ("Readability of 
>Computer-Generated Fill-Justified Text", Stanley Trollip and Gregory Sales, 
>Human Factors 28(2), April 1986, pp 159-163).
>combines studies of both to show that justified text on computer displays
>is read more slowly than unjustified text on computer displays.
>
>-mark
>-- 
>Spoken: Mark Weiser 	ARPA:	mark@maryland	Phone: +1-301-454-7817
>CSNet:	mark@umcp-cs 	UUCP:	{seismo,allegra}!umcp-cs!mark
>USPS: Computer Science Dept., University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742


Interesting... what are the acceptable limits of raggedness?  What I mean
is, how much raggedness should you allow before you give up and hyphenate
the offending word?  I prefer a ragged margin to justified text, but
hyphenated words seem to slow me down much more than justification.

Have there been any studies of the effects of hyphenation on reading speed?

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