Draft for “4.2 Justification”

Justification

Of the four basic justification methods (flush left, flush right, justified, and centered), justified is the most challenging, as it requires changing the widths of the lines to a pre-defined measure.

In Arabic there are six mechanisms for changing the width of a line of text. Each one has its limitations and considerations on when and how it can be applied. Furthermore, different typographers and calligraphers have divergent preferences for these mechanisms.

Adjusting Inter-Word Spaces

This is the same mechanism widely used when for justifying Latin scripts, where the width of the spaces between the words can be increased or decreased to change the width of the line.

Minimum and maximum widths define boundaries for how much spaces can be shrunk or stretched. When it is not possible to stay within these values, the spaces stretch pass the maximum width.

In general, shrinking and stretching spaces beyond a minimal value can lead to unpleasant results.

TODO

Adjusting Intra-Word Spaces

TODO

Alternative Shapes

TODO

Ligatures

TODO

Elongation

TODO

Tatweel

TODO

Combination of the mechanisms

TODO

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Notes, Links, …

• Drop “elongation” from title of this section. It’s one of the mechanisms used for justification.
• Prefer “elongation” to “kashida,” as the latter is sometimes used as a synonym for “tatweel” too.
• Discussion at ALReq meeting on 28 June, 2016
• Justify Just or Just Justify
• Arabic text justification
• Thomas Milo’s “Arabic script and typography: A brief historical view”
• Tasmeem Manual
• Justifying Text using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in Internet Explorer 5.5

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