Typesetting

Alignment

Left alignment - ranged left, ragged right edges. Commonly used; easy reading & typesetting.

Justified text - ranged left, right edges straight. Clean & classic but if done wrong can make text hard to read. Can result in rivers.

Centred - ragged edges on both sides, sitting in middle of page. Uncommon as hard to read.

Right alignment - ranged right, ragged left edges. Uncommon as hard to read.

[Rag refer to the uneven margin of a block of type.]

Paragraphing

Indented - space in the first line of a new paragraph.

Full line break - separates the paragraphs with a full line of space.

Line length - number of words in a line. Between 7 and 12 words or 40 - 75 characters is advised. Less causes an extreme, ugly rag; more can cause decreased readability and the eye finds it hard to track the next line.

Kerning & pairs - kerning is the adjusting of the space between each letterform/character to achieve a more visually pleasing result.

Letter spacing

Leading - the spacing between baselines of successive lines of type. Bad leading can appear cramped or cause the eye to struggle to differentiate each line. Leading should be slightly greater than the font pt size and increased/decreased proportionally.

Tracking - the amount of space between a group of letters. Readability decreases when negative tracking is applied. Wide tracking can make text appear more airy due to amount of white space. This can also decrease readability. Below -40 and above +40 not advised.

Widows and orphans - singular lines or words left hanging or seperate from a block of text. They should be avoided as can look awkward. To fix this, tracking and line length should be changed to remove them.

Rivers - the result of coincidental alignment of spaces within a block of text where the gaps appear to run through the text, like a river.