Justified text or not?

[ZodWallop]

I'd recommend setting justification to Off and just make sure the body text in your books is set to justify.

Setting Justification to On can cause some weird formatting issues with the rest of the text.

[PunkyKoopa]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I'd recommend setting justification to Off and just make sure the body text in your books is set to justify.

Setting Justification to On can cause some weird formatting issues with the rest of the text.

In order to do that, I will need to edit the book code in Calibre, right? I prefer to not edit my books because I have them across different devices, including a Libra 2 and a Paperwhite.

Also, the off setting is a bit weird. Even Kindle just have two modes, left alignment or fully justified. I don’t know exactly what the off setting does.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by PunkyKoopa

In order to do that, I will need to edit the book code in Calibre, right? I prefer to not edit my books because I have them across different devices, including a Libra 2 and a Paperwhite.

Also, the off setting is a bit weird. Even Kindle just have two modes, left alignment or fully justified. I don’t know exactly what the off setting does.

The off setting uses the justification in the CSS of the eBook. If you use the justification override, you center justified things won't be correctly centered.

[Deobulakenyo]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I'd recommend setting justification to Off and just make sure the body text in your books is set to justify.

Setting Justification to On can cause some weird formatting issues with the rest of the text.

How do i do this (body text in books is set to justify) in Calibre?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Deobulakenyo

How do i do this (body text in books is set to justify) in Calibre?

This is what I use for the body style in CSS. Notice the line that justifies the text.

body {
  widows: 1;
  orphans: 1;
  margin-top: 0;
  margin-right: 0;
  margin-bottom: 0;
  margin-left: 0;
  text-align: justify;
}

[PunkyKoopa]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The off setting uses the justification in the CSS of the eBook. If you use the justification override, you center justified things won't be correctly centered.

Yeah, but I think that is just a minor issue. As far as I have seen, it only happens with some books (not all) and just with chapter titles and stuff like that.

If I edit the CSS of one book to make things look "right" on my Kobo, can make things worse on my partner's Kindle, right? On the top of that, it's a modification on a book by book bias, right?

That's too much fuss for me.

Thank you but I think that I will use justification plus hyphenation. It looks great that way.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by PunkyKoopa

Yeah, but I think that is just a minor issue. As far as I have seen, it only happens with some books (not all) and just with chapter titles and stuff like that.

If I edit the CSS of one book to make things look "right" on my Kobo, can make things worse on my partner's Kindle, right? On the top of that, it's a modification on a book by book bias, right?

That's too much fuss for me.

Thank you but I think that I will use justification plus hyphenation. It looks great that way.

All you need do is in the CSS, delete all occurrences of text-align: justify; and text-align: left;. and in the body section of the CSS (If need be, add it) add in the justify or left lines for which justification format you prefer. Problem solved and it will work no problem when you convert to a Kindle format.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by PunkyKoopa

In order to do that, I will need to edit the book code in Calibre, right? I prefer to not edit my books because I have them across different devices, including a Libra 2 and a Paperwhite.

I read my books on a Kobo and a couple of Nooks..

Setting the body text to justify shouldn't negatively impact how the book displays on any device. Body text in a novel should be justified by default (based on 99.9% of novels I have ever read or browsed through).

Also, you can just edit the ePub. Kindles don't read ePub anyway, regardless of what others tell you.

In the end, if you just don't want to do it, that is fine. But if you avoid it because it might somehow interfere with how the book displays elsewhere, I don't think so.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

All you need do is in the CSS, delete all occurrences of text-align: justify; and text-align: left;. and in the body section of the CSS (If need be, add it) add in the justify or left lines for which justification format you prefer. Problem solved and it will work no problem when you convert to a Kindle format.

I don't like to do that, because there are some instances where text should be left aligned. But then, I also spend far more time messing with the formatting of my ebooks than many would like to.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I don't like to do that, because there are some instances where text should be left aligned. But then, I also spend far more time messing with the formatting of my ebooks than many would like to.

I have not found any instance (when reading) where I went "I wish I had left in the text-align: left; in the CSS"

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I have not found any instance (when reading) where I went "I wish I had left in the text-align: left; in the CSS"

Poetry, snips of song lyrics, etc.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Poetry, snips of song lyrics, etc.

Yes.
Also Telegrams, Telex, Console screens, typewriter notes etc are never full justified.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Poetry, snips of song lyrics, etc.

Still no. In most cases, those sorts of things don't have a full line. So they don't get justified.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Yes.
Also Telegrams, Telex, Console screens, typewriter notes etc are never full justified.

Even if things like that are on screen, full justified is not a problem for me.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Still no. In most cases, those sorts of things don't have a full line. So they don't get justified.

They do when you read them on your phone.

Full-justified chapter headings, poetry and book content which is supposed to represent a handwritten letter are definite no-nos for me.