AbstractPrevious attempts to examine the effects of different types of text format on reading have focused on the improvement of reading. The present study investigated the effect of using a text format that might be predicted to disrupt reading. In this study 56 individuals were presented with reading material presented in right‐justified format and in‘ragged’uneven line format. Subjects performed significantly worse on right‐justified material. Subjects who were classified as good readers on the basis of a pretest were more affected than poor readers. It is suggested that this may result from differences in the reading style of good and poor