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Sean Brierley responding to Geoff Hart's assertion that fully justified
text became a publishing standard because it was more space-efficient in
long-ish books:
> I just tested this by making all my body text fully justified--don't
> want to do that with lists as the inter-word spacing could be huge.
>
> For a FrameMaker file, a chapter in my book, I saw no change in page
> count. The reality in this case is that numbered lists, the occasional
> note, the many graphics, and other factors absorb any significant
> efficiency of justified text.
>
> Also, with regard to readability, don't you find that varying the
space
> between words, even over a 5-inch text column, leads to the space
> between sentences becoming hidden ... and the full stop being less
> noticeable ... so perhaps (the dreaded) two spaces between sentences
> becomes appropriate?
>
> Still, all anecdotal really.
It's good that you'd take the time to test, but I think that you and
Geoff are discussing apples and oranges.
Your orange is a technical book with, as you say, all kinds of content
that's not simple body text.
Geoff's apples are probably the bulk of what gets published in large
quantity - novels... although, these days, diet and self-help books
might be giving fiction a run. But then, the question was how the
convention originally came about, back in the day.
- Kevin
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