Alignment places elements along a common line or edge. It creates order and makes a design feel deliberate. When text, images, and buttons share a left edge, the eye follows a clean vertical line down the page. When they are scattered, the design feels accidental. Robin Williams lists alignment as one of four core design principles, alongside proximity, repetition, and contrast. She advises designers to be ruthless: every element should have a visual connection to something else.

There are several types. Left alignment is standard for body text in Western languages because the ragged right edge is easy on the eye. Centered alignment feels formal and works well for invitations and titles. Right alignment suits languages that read right to left, and it works for captions and numeric columns. Justified alignment stretches text to both edges, creating a tidy block but sometimes producing awkward gaps between words.

Alignment in practice

• Choose one primary alignment per block of content.
• Align elements to a shared edge or grid line.
• Avoid centering long blocks of body text.
• Use alignment to connect elements across a layout.

Strong alignment is often invisible. The viewer simply feels the page is organized. Weak alignment produces a nagging sense that something is off, even if the viewer cannot say what.