![517px-Cefalù_Pantocrator_retouched.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmd718RdEtpVMD83ooSDqDwau8TkKJUfih4dRBxeNn6h32/517px-Cefal%C3%B9_Pantocrator_retouched.jpg)
*(Photo of our lord and savior very clearly approving of left-justified text from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cefalù_Pantocrator_retouched.jpg))*

Every once in a while, I come across a post where most or all of the text has been centered. And in this post, I'm imploring all who think it's a good idea to please, in the name of all that is holy, stop.

Left-aligned text has a huge advantage when it comes to reading; when you reach the end of a line, you know exactly where the next line will begin. There's very little conscious or even subconscious thought required to continue on to the next line. For centered text, this is not the case; the eye and brain have to do a bit of work to determine where the next line begins, and may miss it entirely if the next line contains very few words and therefore the left edge of it is very far to the right. Centered text takes a lot more time and effort to read. So, in the name of of the Virgin Mary and all of the angels, please don't do that.

Open up any book, magazine, news website article, newspaper, or any other well-made long-form reading material you have nearby. Did its graphic designers center the text? Perhaps they centered the headlines or chapter names or that sort of thing; short bits of text. But the actual body text will have nice, beautiful, straight left margins, because it's well known in the print and design industry that left-aligned text is the easiest to read. Why the ever-loving Christ do you think you know better than them?

Perhaps you think it makes your post stand out. And it does, but not in a good way. If I see a long blob of centered text, I close the post immediately without bothering to read it. There's a very good chance that your insights really aren't so jaw-droppingly amazing that it will be worth the time and effort to scrobble my eyes along your jagged margins, especially when there are plenty of great writers on here not intentionally making their posts more difficult to read. And if I don't read your post, I don't engage; I don't upvote, I don't comment, I don't resteem. And I can't be the only one.

So please, for fuck's sake, stop centering the text in your posts.