Line breaking algorithm in typst

There are only few information available about the line breaking algorithm in typst. According to internet forums it is more advanced than a simple greedy algorithm used in Libreoffice, but less elaborated like the knuth plass algorithm used in LaTeX. So its located in between them with possible future improvements.

To investigate if the current quality of typst typesetting fulfills the needs of an academic paper let us benchmark the algorithm for a complex example, which is 3 column typesetting. In a 3 column layout, each column is very small which makes it harder for the algorithm to avoid white spaces between the words.

Of course, there are some white spaces available but in general the output has an average quality. LaTeX would be able to reduce the white spaces by microtypography tricks not available in typst. Its a subjective opinion which of the systems is preferred.