Post #790573

2025-12-19 20:29 UTC

In this interactive web demo, @gdc shows an alternate method for text justification, called “cogent” or “semi-justified” alignment, where each line is justified if possible within a range of spacing limits, but left-aligned otherwise: https://blog.glyphdrawing.club/semi-justified-text/ Fraser Muggeridge gave a great related talk at @ANRT this year, focused on an example from Herbert Bayer: https://vimeo.com/1059643515 (Unfortunately the video is cut off at the end.) Does anyone know other examples of this technique in use?

Replies (2)

@graphicore@post.lurk.org 2025-12-19 22:43

@nicksherman @gdc @ANRT Other example, but the justification in our demo also uses the variable font xtra axis. We stop the “widening” if there’s no more potential. But before we also try “narrowing” the line until we can force a new line break or we are out of potential. Also, the demo does much more than only justification, like layout, detail typography etc. I gave an ATypI online tech presentation in 2022: The demo is here: https://graphicore.github.io/varla-varfo/explorations/wikipedia/Typography/firefox_save_page_as/Typography%20-%20Wikipedia.html The presentation is here, it’s boring but I explain all the details: https://youtu.be/5c2esX3M_rg?si=1l2kjuREyHvDxar_

Open ##1399046
@gdc@typo.social 2026-01-05 10:51

@nicksherman @ANRT I forgot to ask, what browser were you using when taking the screencast? The spacing is bugging out, but it looks as intended in my testing with Safari, Chrome and Firefox on Mac.

Open ##1399050