Text alignment and readability

[anticap]

You may be aware that the reason ALL CAPS is frowned upon, aside from the SHOUTING part, is because it's HARDER TO READ DUE TO THE UNIFORM HEIGHT OF THE LETTERS. As we read a sentence, our eyes scan for the odd letters that stand above the rest, which helps us to keep our place. Or something like that; I can't remember where I read this, or whether there were studies behind it. Anyway it makes sense to me and is true according to my eyes.

So I'm wondering if the same is true vertically, where the right-hand edge of a paragraph is normally uneven (when text is aligned left), as opposed to uniform (as with justified text alignment).

Which of the following do you find easier to read?

Left alignment:
http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/6646/image1ay.png

Justified alignment:
http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/2900/image2rm.png

Thanks.

[Rusty Shackleford]

i think it all has to do with conditioning. i grew up in a left-alignment text style world.

text-books and word documents are all automatically left-aligned.


as for the justified in that picture. it looks like a true wall of text. and actually, it seems uniform on both sides.
because its so uniform, its actually hard to keep place.

[leftace53]

i hate justified shit.

[the last donut of the night]

the top text is easier

[Stand Your Ground]

I found the Justfied slightly easier, but no big difference.