Texto justificado en la web

Hace unos días, en los comentarios del post sobre las nuevas monedas británicas, manteníamos un entretenido intercambio de opiniones sobre la idoneidad de justificar bloques de texto en internet. Ya di mi opinión en esos comentarios pero hoy, casualmente, me he encontrado con otra buena razón por la que los textos justificados son rara avis en la web. Está sacada del libro "Pro CSS Techniques" y se refiere a la escaso soporte que dan los navegadores a ese arte de partir palabras, que es un instrumento muy útil si se quiere justificar un texto decéntemente. Os dejo la cita:

p { text-align: justify; }
This is a common effect in printed type, and can be seen in most newspapers. The downside to justified text is the inconsistent spacing between words, which can sometimes lead to unsightly “rivers” of whitespace flowing vertically down the page and decreasing readability.
What typically prevents this effect in print is hyphenation. By breaking up words via hyphenation, the full width of the measure can be put to use and the word spacing becomes more consistent. However, web browsers (and CSS) do not currently offer automatic hyphenation.
As such, justified text is uncommon on the Web. If you elect to use it, be sure to choose your line length wisely, or you’re likely to see large white holes in your lines of text. Justified text tends to work better with longer measures.