

Why You Should Never Center Align Paragraph Text - bankerofpawns
http://uxmovement.com/content/why-you-should-never-center-align-paragraph-text

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teye
Another painfully obvious, no-data article from uxmovement.com.

A minute of Googling gave me a more researched article with more comprehensive
suggestions. See 3.5 on p. 390.

[http://core.ecu.edu/engl/tpc/MennoMenno/ftp/williams%202000....](http://core.ecu.edu/engl/tpc/MennoMenno/ftp/williams%202000.pdf)
(Link fixed, thanks!)

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Semiapies
Dead link.

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kmfrk
Works if you remove "25":
[http://core.ecu.edu/engl/tpc/MennoMenno/ftp/williams%202000....](http://core.ecu.edu/engl/tpc/MennoMenno/ftp/williams%202000.pdf)

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Groxx
> _In other words, a cen­tered head­line should never go with a left aligned
> para­graph._

And then their poll is an exact example of this. I swear, _every_ UX movement
article I've seen has had an example of what they're campaigning against
elsewhere in the page.

I ask: why? Headings are a different section of the page, a different
conceptual item than the paragraph they relate to. Centering them, and giving
them a different left-edge helps differentiate them from merely large text.

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jerf
"I ask: why?"

They told you. It will look off-center. Draw the lines on the right side of
the text that they drew on the left above that and you'll see it. If the box
is 20 units wide, the center of the centered text will be put at 10 units by
your layout algorithm, but that will actually be to the right of the "actual"
center, because nearly all lines of text will actually be shorter than 20
units. The 20 is an upper bound, not an actual bound.

I would be intrigued to see if they say the same thing if one justifies the
text, but my guess is that they would tell you not to justify your text on the
web anyhow.

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Groxx
That's _their_ why, and it's a style choice that's heavily influenced by the
size of your text chunks. And style choices are fast-changing.

Try the same experiment with a wider (say, 6-800px) block of text, such as you
see more frequently than the ~200px they demonstrate with, and try to tell how
off-center it is. Or with a longer block of text, where the width is more
easily visible because the ragged edge on the right will inevitably get close
to the actual width of the container. Or with anything with surrounding images
/ colors that are different, where it'll _clearly_ be centered.

Meanwhile, left-align everything and then compare with a center-aligned
header, and decide which one reads more easily. This is " _UX_ movement", ie
"user experience", not Designer Daily; ease of reading and detecting different
sections of the page are part of UX.

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pavel_lishin
What about text justified to both sides?

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Groxx
I personally despise justified text. Losing the ragged edge means it's easier
to lose your place, and varying spaces between words just means more brain-
load if you're reading quickly.

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mooism2
It's odd. I find justified text difficult to read on a screen, but when it's
printed I read it easily, without even noticing it's justified.

If the reason for this is that screens are lower resolution than print, I
would expect reading justified text on screens to become easier over the next
few years, as 300dpi screens first become available and then common.

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idheitmann
Fewer vertical lines looks cleaner to the eye.

But "never"? I'm sure gorgeous counterexamples are only a few hops away.

Reminds me of militant opinions on font choice for resumes.

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pedrokost
What is you opinion on All caps or Small caps headlines? I think they are
captivating, and small caps even induce some eye flow.

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snorkel
WHAT ABOUT ALL CAPS? GOOD? BAD?

