Hello everyone, I've been lurking on this website for some time and found it very useful. Now I have a question that I can't find a satisfying answer to anywhere, so I decided to finally join.

I'm familiar with the many ways you can adjust the justification of the text, but if one decides to go with the ragged-right block, it seems to me that you really have no choice but to accept whatever Adobe decides to be the most acceptable edge.

As Bringhurst puts it: "When setting ragged text with a computer, take a moment to refine your software's understanding of what constitutes an honest rag."

Well, I would like to do just that. Ideally, I would like to be able to set the minimum and maximum line length, and tell InDesign what sacrifices to make to achieve this. Or maybe just be able to introduce a certain degree of flexibility of spacing, to even out the rag.

So far, having spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out how to do this, my conclusion is that InDesign will simply not let you. So my question to you is:

Am I right in my conclusion? If so, is there maybe a plug-in that would allow for this functionality? And perhaps most importantly, how do you professionals go about managing the ragged edge?

Big thank you in advance.