Text Alignment Options

cnote · 01-13-2013, 03:38 PM

Kindle readers typically align paragraphs in one of three ways, flush left, justified or a clever combination of both. Does anyone know how to create the clever combination? It seems that some ebooks have the ability to display paragraphs in such a way as to not allow large spaces to appear between words. Instead, it will flush left a line in the middle of a justified paragraph to prevent large spaces. How is this accomplished? Is it in the html or CSS? Can anyone help me with this. Thank you in advance.

susan_cassidy · 01-13-2013, 06:14 PM

That is done by the ereader software, not by the book itself. The book could not know how a line is going to be displayed, as the font size can change.

DiapDealer · 01-13-2013, 06:43 PM

As Susan says, if a paragraph appears justified without any extraneous spacing between words, it's because that paragraph just worked out that way (for that screen size and font-size and margin settings). Luck of the draw basically.

EDIT: Actually, on reading your post again. I'm almost certain the "flush left a line in the middle of a justified paragraph to prevent large spaces" that you mentioned is just the technique the Kindle Reader uses in place of hyphenation. It's some sort of algorithm the reader uses that determines when too much spacing would be required to justify and so leaves that line "ragged" instead. It's still not something you can control (as a book creator) at all.

cnote · 01-13-2013, 07:13 PM

Hello. I am grateful for your answers, but am confused. Why then does my Kindle display some books with the creative justification and some without it? The specific issue is that some books allow an extreme amount of space between two words when justifying, sometimes as much as 1.5 inches. On the other hand, some books seem to know this is unacceptable, and make that particular line flush left so the extra space appears at the end of the line, rather than in between the words. It seems like it would have to be a deliberate setting. No? Am I just wishing too hard?

DiapDealer · 01-13-2013, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cnote

The specific issue is that some books allow an extreme amount of space between two words when justifying, sometimes as much as 1.5 inches.

I would say white-space of 1.5 inches between words is a result of the book creator using non-breaking spaces improperly. I see "rivers of white" somewhere in almost all Kindle books, but I've never encountered that kind of spacing due to the justification algorithm alone in Kindle books.

Quote:

On the other hand, some books seem to know this is unacceptable, and make that particular line flush left so the extra space appears at the end of the line,

As mentioned before: there is just no way for a book to even begin to know what might constitute "a line" due to varying screen sizes, font sizes and margin settings (unless you want to create a fixed-layout ebook).

HarryT · 01-14-2013, 03:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cnote

Hello. I am grateful for your answers, but am confused. Why then does my Kindle display some books with the creative justification and some without it?

Because the Kindle does this for Mobi books, but not KF8 books.

01-13-2013, 03:38 PM	#1
cnote Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2012 Device: ibook	Text Alignment Options Kindle readers typically align paragraphs in one of three ways, flush left, justified or a clever combination of both. Does anyone know how to create the clever combination? It seems that some ebooks have the ability to display paragraphs in such a way as to not allow large spaces to appear between words. Instead, it will flush left a line in the middle of a justified paragraph to prevent large spaces. How is this accomplished? Is it in the html or CSS? Can anyone help me with this. Thank you in advance.

01-13-2013, 06:43 PM	#3
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 28,341 Karma: 203719646 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	As Susan says, if a paragraph appears justified without any extraneous spacing between words, it's because that paragraph just worked out that way (for that screen size and font-size and margin settings). Luck of the draw basically. EDIT: Actually, on reading your post again. I'm almost certain the "flush left a line in the middle of a justified paragraph to prevent large spaces" that you mentioned is just the technique the Kindle Reader uses in place of hyphenation. It's some sort of algorithm the reader uses that determines when too much spacing would be required to justify and so leaves that line "ragged" instead. It's still not something you can control (as a book creator) at all. Last edited by DiapDealer; 01-13-2013 at 07:14 PM.

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01-13-2013, 06:14 PM	#2
susan_cassidy Wizard Posts: 2,251 Karma: 3720310 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: USA Device: Kindle, iPad (not used much for reading)	That is done by the ereader software, not by the book itself. The book could not know how a line is going to be displayed, as the font size can change.

01-13-2013, 07:13 PM	#4
cnote Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2012 Device: ibook	Hello. I am grateful for your answers, but am confused. Why then does my Kindle display some books with the creative justification and some without it? The specific issue is that some books allow an extreme amount of space between two words when justifying, sometimes as much as 1.5 inches. On the other hand, some books seem to know this is unacceptable, and make that particular line flush left so the extra space appears at the end of the line, rather than in between the words. It seems like it would have to be a deliberate setting. No? Am I just wishing too hard?

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