A while ago we were talking about right-justified text, and in particular about the clashing dogmas on the subject: Web designers on the whole think right-justified text is a mistake in any context, whereas designers of serious books and magazines think that failing to right-justify text is a mistake. We noted that WordPress, the software that has run this Magazine since it moved to the Web almost nineteen years ago, and that since that time has grown to power half the Internet, had removed the right-justification feature years ago, leaving designers to write their own CSS if they felt the need for a traditional text design. (This was one of the main reasons Dr. Boli had to learn a little about CSS and theme design in the first place.)

Yesterday we were reading about the new features of the upcoming version of WordPress, and buried two-thirds of the way down a very long page was this little paragraph:

Nearly all text blocks now support the standardized text-align block support system, including Paragraph, Button, Comment blocks, Heading, and Verse. Plus, text justify alignment is now available. See tracking issue to follow along on the progress (60763).

And, indeed, it seems that a pull request that has been open for two years has finally been closed with a successful merging of the code into the core of WordPress. It is now possible to justify text with a simple button, even if the theme (unlike the “Dr. Boli” theme that runs this Magazine) has not specified justified text.

Throughout history, civilization has been under constant assault from the forces of barbarism. But once in a while it helps to remember that, in spite of tremendous defeats, there have always been more victories for the forces of civilization, and the barbarians have never succeeded in completely extinguishing it. Today we are witnesses to a victory, and we can remind ourselves that defeats can be overcome and pernicious trends reversed if someone with enough determination and patience stands up for civilization.

If justified text is finally back, could small capitals be next? The “Dr. Boli” theme has made them as easy as possible under current circumstances, but they still have to be implemented by adding the codes <sc></sc> directly in the HTML. It seems to Dr. Boli that simple and intuitive small capitals, which are required for certain uses in formal publishing, are the next obvious step in making the World-Wide Web safe for serious writing. Is anyone ready with a pull request? For any coders who need encouragement, it may help to point out that the successful pull request for a right-justification option came from a first-time contributor to WordPress.