Align Contents in LaTeX — Environments center, Center, flushleft, FlushLeft, flushright, FlushRight, and commands \centering, \Centering, \raggedleft, \RaggedLeft, \raggedright, \RaggedRight
Oct. 28, 2025 in Buffalo, United States • Updated Oct. 28, 2025
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\documentclass[a5paper]{article}
\usepackage[x11names]{xcolor}
\pagecolor{AntiqueWhite1}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{ragged2e}
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{document}
\textbf{plain}: \lipsum[1][1-5]
\begin{center}
\textbf{center environment}: \lipsum[1][1-5]
\end{center}
\begin{Center}
\textbf{Center environment of ragged2e package}: \lipsum[1][1-5]
\end{Center}
{\centering \textbf{\textbackslash centering command}: \lipsum[1][1-5] \par} % \par and curly brackets are needed
{\Centering \textbf{\textbackslash Centering command of ragged2e package}: \lipsum[1][1-5] \par} % \par and curly brackets are needed
\newpage
\begin{flushleft}
\textbf{flushleft environment}: \lipsum[1][1-5]
\end{flushleft}
\begin{FlushLeft}
\textbf{FlushLeft environment of ragged2e package}: \lipsum[1][1-5]
\end{FlushLeft}
{\raggedleft \textbf{\textbackslash raggedleft command}: \lipsum[1][1-5] \par} % \par and curly brackets are needed
{\RaggedLeft \textbf{\textbackslash RaggedLeft command of ragged2e package}: \lipsum[1][1-5] \par} % \par and curly brackets are needed
\newpage
\begin{flushright}
\textbf{flushright environment}: \lipsum[1][1-5]
\end{flushright}
\begin{FlushRight}
\textbf{FlushRight environment of ragged2e package}: \lipsum[1][1-5]
\end{FlushRight}
{\raggedright \textbf{\textbackslash raggedright command}: \lipsum[1][1-5] \par} % \par and curly brackets are needed
{\RaggedRight \textbf{\textbackslash RaggedRight command of ragged2e package}: \lipsum[1][1-5] \par} % \par and curly brackets are needed
\end{document}



- It seems that there is not a standard environment called
centering, although I used it a lot before — I remember it works without errors or warnings …… - Environments will create additional vertical distance.
- When using commands, instead of environments, remember to use
\parand{}to isolate the content, which prevents influencing subsequent contents. - Those commands and environments (with capitalization) from the
ragged2epackage are built upon those original ones, and they avoid “the text looks too ragged” by using hyphenation somewhere if needed12.
References