Re: What do you guys prefer

[Stephen Harris]

To: "LyXFolks" <lyx-users@lists.lyx.org>
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2005 2:45 PM
Subject: Re: What do you guys prefer

----- Original Message ----- From: "Bruce Pourciau" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

Every book in my office and every book at my home, fiction and nonfiction, has justified text, the only exceptions being some children's books, in particular the ones with just a sentence or two on each page, which are set ragged right. When the text width is very narrow or the font size very large -- if the text is set in columns, for example, or on a page of advertising -- then ragged right avoids the uneven word spacing and reduces the number of hyphens that justified text would produce. All monospaced fonts and some unserifed faces look better on the page in ragged right, even at normal text widths. In general, though, publishers set texts in justified type, except in rare cases.

Bruce


On Friday, December 16, 2005, at 03:32 PM, Rich Shepard wrote:

If you decide to set ragged right, make sure your word processor does an "honest rag," with a fixed word space and no hyphenation. Some programs, if left to their own devices, will vary the word spaces and hyphenate even in ragged right. Robert Bringhurst, in The Elements of Typographic Style, says this makes the "text look like a neatly pinched piecrust. This approach combines the worst features of justification with the worst features of ragged setting, while eliminating the principal virtues of both."

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005, John O'Gorman wrote:

Which you guys think is better, ragged right or justified right?
It's a book of short stories.

I think that justified right creates the appearance of professionalism.

Studies have shown that it is a little easier to read ragged right.
It is a book of short stories intended for what audience?

I was thinking about of friend of mine who has been a computer
technician for over 15 years. He is very successful because he has
a high mechanical aptitude and a computer is a machine. He can
also fix a furnace or a washing machine. Critical thinking is also an

and respect the observation of the 30th President, Calvin Coolidge,
and so if you are ever looking for a good quote for a book, I suggest

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will
not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education
will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and
determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has
solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."

excellent tool and serves well in other aspects of life. But, I agree with

Which justification of the above 3 pagragraphs do you alike?

They all appear ragged right on my mail client (Ximian Evolution)!

  In pine they're all ragged right.

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will
not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education
will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and de-
termination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved
and always will solve the problems of the human race."

SH: In Outlook Express, the paragraph below appears as right-justified and also displays the same as in LyX, when using import by line. It does not appear justified in text however. If import by paragraph is used, then gaps in the sentences appear. I include attachments of the original text file(raggedr), which is uneven, and two lyx files, one from line(raggedline) and one from paragraph(raggedpara.lyx).

One thing that I've noticed since I started typesetting my writing with LyX/LaTeX is how many books are printed from processed word submittals. The variation in word and sentence spacing jumps right off the page at me. I don't see this in a book that has been typeset with the paragraph as the calculation unit (rather than the line that word processors use). Perhaps

it's just me, but I see the unevenness and it's distracting.

Rich

I don't like the spaces that appear in the paragraph import with LyX.
"the  world is  full   of educated    derelicts" I think it may be due to
the line being shorter (not indented) with import by line.

Regards,
Stephen


This displays as right-justified in Outlook Express

-----
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will
not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education
will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and de-
termination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved
and always will solve the problems of the human race."

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will
not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education
will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and de-
termination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved
and always will solve the problems of the human race."

and the same as right-justified by the line in LyX but notice the change when imported by paragraph:

raggedline.lyx
Description: application/lyx

raggedpara.lyx
Description: application/lyx