Specifying Word-Space Ranges in Text with Justified Margins

Tight spacing leads to illegibility faster than loose spacing. This is illustrated in Figure 10.13: Type whose word spaces are reduced by 50 percent is clearly harder to read than type whose word spaces are stretched by 50 percent. When specifying the range in which word spaces can be flexed, then, always build most of the flexibility into stretching rather than squeezing. The exact range depends on the measure and the typeface. Figure 10.14 shows some examples.

Figure 10.13. These are two ugly pieces of type, although the loose-ugly (right) is still readable, while the tight-ugly takes some effort. For this reason, a typesetting program that’s unable to stay within your H&J spacing ranges will usually err on the wide side.

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