To Justify or not to Justify?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by theducks

Justified, but I wish devices would do a better job of (including) spacing of letters instead of having huge canyons between words.

One thing ADE needs to do better is manage the spaces between words better then it does.

[SampleAndy]

Originally Posted by gmw

Hyphenation, when done carefully, can be an effective way to make justification work more smoothly, but you do have to be wary of using the defaults....

The thing is, if you as the author/publisher adds hyphenation, it's there regardless of what font the end user picks, unless the formatting engine is a lot more sophisticated than I think. One of the books I've been reading recently (admittedly free Amazon/MobiPocket) has hyphens scattered throughout, and it really breaks up the flow of the story. Ah, well... Sometimes, you get what you pay for.

I constantly find myself wanting to edit my ebooks, just so when I read them again, they'll be perfect. Then, reality checks in and I start to wonder if I'll live long enough to read all the ones I have already. (shrugs)

[gmw]

You're right SampleAndy, it's not practical for the author/publisher to apply hyphenation in ebooks (though we can control it in our print editions). However, as/if/when ebooks become more sophisticated then hyphenation may be one of those options we (as readers) get to use and control; even just small adjustments can make a big difference to how much hyphenation breaks up the text.