Design Nomenclature / Type

Rag

Also called ragged edge, ragged right

The uneven edge of unjustified text. A good rag is worked, not accepted: it varies line to line without falling into a wedge, a staircase, or an accidental shape, and it never leaves a one-word line or breaks a name across lines. The reward for leaving it ragged is even word spacing throughout.

The same paragraph set left-aligned twice at a 57-character measure, the measure's arithmetic printed above each. The first takes the line-breaker's rag as given and strands the paragraph's last word, 'consequat.', alone on its own line. The second pulls a word back off the line above so the last line carries two — the cheapest real rag fix, and what text-wrap: pretty buys.

In practice

Ragging is manual and doesn't survive a CMS, so on the web you get the rag the line-breaker gives you. text-wrap: pretty and balance are the first real tools for this in years.

Not to be confused with

How this term connects

H&JJustificationMeasureOrphanRiverWidowRag
Related Confused with