Understanding the Use of 'word-spacing' in CSS

In CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), the 'word-spacing' property is used to manipulate the space between words in a text block. It allows web designers to alter the standard space and create a visually appealing and readable text display for their website's visitors. A very straight forward but powerful method to alter the aesthetic of your webpage content.

The 'word-spacing' property can accept values in different units, such as px (pixels), em (the current font size), and % (percentage of the current font size).

Here is a basic example of its usage:

p {
  word-spacing: 4px;
}

In this example, the 'word-spacing' property is set to 4 pixels for "p", which stands for paragraph. As a result, all paragraphs within that webpage will have a 4-pixel space between each word.

An important thing to remember when using 'word-spacing' is that it will apply to all instances of the selected element on the page by default. Therefore, if you only want to change the word spacing for a specific section, you will need to either specify a unique id or class to be the selector.

Negative values are also accepted by 'word-spacing' property. They can help in instances when the default spacing seems too wide.

h1 {
  word-spacing: -2px;
}

In the above scenario, the space between words in the "h1" or heading1, will be 2 pixels less than the default space.

In regards to best practices, it is important to remember that while you have the ability to significantly alter the space between words, large changes could potentially impact the readability of the text. Therefore, 'word-spacing' property should be used judiciously, keeping the end user in mind.

In conclusion, 'word-spacing' is a handy property in CSS, providing a simple but powerful tool for designers to manage the appearance of their text content on webpages. It's all about enhancing the user experience, after all.