Text Alignment: Flush Left, Centered, Flush Right, and Justified

Alignment determines how text lines anchor relative to container margins:

1. Flush Left (Ragged Right)

The gold standard for left-to-right languages. Aligns neatly on the left margin, leaving an organic ragged right edge. Because every line begins at the exact same horizontal anchor, the reader's eye effortlessly returns to the start of each line.

2. Centered Alignment

Aligned along an invisible central axis. Leaves gaps on both sides.

• Rule: Restrict centered text to headlines or short callouts of 3 lines or fewer. Centering full paragraphs forces the reader to search for the start of every line, inducing severe reading fatigue.

3. Flush Right (Ragged Left)

Aligned to the right margin. Natural for right-to-left languages (Arabic, Hebrew). In Western layouts, use sparingly for numeric columns or short meta tags.

4. Justified Alignment (The Digital Anti-Pattern)

Forces text to touch both margins by algorithmically expanding word spaces. In digital web browsers without hyphenation dictionaries, this creates hideous 'rivers of white space' that severely disrupt readability and create barriers for people with dyslexia. Avoid in digital UI.