Stretch text to the container width

Jquery plugin that stretches text to the width of it's containg block. It calculates the letter-spacing and adds it to the text.

by web tiki

HTML

<p class="stretch one">Stretch me</p>
<p class="stretch two">Stretch me</p>
<p class="stretch three">Stretch <a href="#">link</a></p>
<p class="stretch two">I am too slong, an I would look ugly if I was displayed on one line so let me expand to several lines and justify me.</p>
<p  class="stretch arial one">Stretch me</p>
<p class="stretch arial three">Stretch me</p>
<p class="stretch arial four">Stretch me</p>
<p class="arial two">Don't stretch me</p>

CSS

p {
    background:gold;
    width:300px;
    padding: 10px 0;
}
a{text-decoration:none;}
.stretch_it{
    white-space: nowrap;
}
.justify{
    text-align:justify;
}

.one{font-size:10px;}
.two{font-size:20px;}
.three{font-size:30px;}
.four{font-size:40px;}
.arial{font-family:arial;}

JavaScript

$.fn.strech_text = function(){
    var elmt          = $(this),
        cont_width    = elmt.width(),
        txt           = elmt.html(),
        one_line      = $('<span class="stretch_it">' + txt + '</span>'),
        nb_char       = elmt.text().length,
        spacing       = cont_width/nb_char,
        txt_width;
    
    elmt.html(one_line);
    txt_width = one_line.width();
    
    if (txt_width < cont_width){
        var  char_width     = txt_width/nb_char,
             ltr_spacing    = spacing - char_width + (spacing - char_width)/nb_char ; 
  
        one_line.css({'letter-spacing': ltr_spacing});
    } else {
        one_line.contents().unwrap();
        elmt.addClass('justify');
    }
};


$(document).ready(function () {
    $('.stretch').each(function(){
        $(this).strech_text();
    });
});