most paper-books traditionally used justification, where paragraph-lines are even on the right side, but the web usually serves users unjustified text (browsers were initially underpowered and crude), so a long-form standard on justification is in flux.
whatever the answer is to that question, though, there are structures in need of special treatment.
sometimes you want to set off an element by giving it a different form of justification, and z.m.l. makes it easy for you to do that.
on this, the most common need is a centered line.
indeed, since the width of the ultimate viewport is always of various sizes, it ends up that centering is often the most reliable way to set off an element.
so z.m.l. makes it extremely simple to center a line; just use a space in the first column to get the effect.
the line below starts with a space, in the input file, so when it's rendered out, the line will be centered.
this line will be centered in the output.
this rule works as well for each line within a chunk; each line in the haiku entered below has a space in the first column, so each is centered in the output:
t.v. will eat you
(a haiku by bowerbird intelligentleman)
.
t.v. will eat you
out of a satellite dish
with a tuning fork
.
sometimes you want to indent a block of lines, rather than have each line individually centered...
z.m.l. lets you obtain that kind of effect easily; just use multiple spaces -- you need at least 5 -- to get a chunk that's left-justified and indented.
a haiku for you
(by bowerbird intelligentleman)
.
haiku have three lines
and seventeen syllables
five, seven, and five
.
note that this won't necessarily center the block -- because we don't know the size of the viewport in advance, and the width of the block will vary too, depending on the font the reader has chosen to use -- it becomes harder to specify the indent correctly.
but whatever the case, more spaces at the start of a line will cause a bigger indent, so act accordingly. it's best to be conservative; a small indent still works.
you can also vary spacing, as some poems like to do.
six spaces at the start of this line
12 spaces at the start of this line
six spaces at the start of this line
12 spaces at the start of this line
12 spaces at the start of this line
24 spaces at the start of this line
12 spaces at the start of this line
24 spaces at the start of this line
you can even get downwight fweaky!
six spaces at the start of this line
ten spaces at the start of this line
14 spaces at the start of this line
18 spaces at the start of this line
22 spaces at the start of this line
26 spaces at the start of this line
22 spaces at the start of this line
18 spaces at the start of this line
14 spaces at the start of this line
ten spaces at the start of this line
six spaces at the start of this line
***
the input for the 2 chunks that follow has
a space in the first column of all of the lines.
you know about a space in the first column.
a space in the first column will center a line,
or -- applied to each line in a group of lines --
will end up centering the entire block of lines.
***
this chunk, and the next chunk as well, has
two (2) spaces at the beginning of each line.
if you want to explicitly declare a block as
left-justified, you start it with two spaces.
this puts it at the left margin, with no indent.
***
this chunk, and the next chunk as well, has
three (3) spaces at the beginning of each line.
three spaces at the start of a line will
cause it to be centered, just like one space.
yes, it's redundant, but it keeps continuity
as we move from 2 spaces to 4, taking the
alignment from left through center to right.
***
this chunk, and the next chunk as well, has
four (4) spaces at the beginning of each line.
so, filling out the left-center-right concept,
4 spaces at the start of a line will cause it to
be right-justified.
***
so, to review, 1 space = centered
2 spaces = left-justified
3 spaces = centered as well
4 spaces = right-justified