Re. Justification, columns and emphasis

[geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA]

     Joyce Flaherty responded to my postings on various typographic
     details:

     <<I recall that studies (scientific approach, controlled environment)
     show left-justified enhances readability.  This has to do with giving
     the eye an anchor.>>
     Some studies do, some don't. The only problem with full justification
     that has been reported in all studies I've seen involves inconsistent
     word spacing (rivers) and poor or excessive hyphenation. If you have
     other studies that contradict this assertion, I'd love to see them.
     (Not being snide... I'm really interested in this subject.) Please
     copy your response to me as well as the list... I'm leaving for two
     weeks vacation and will unsubscribe today.

     <<I recall that studies (scientific approach, controlled environment)
     show maximum line length is 5 1/2" and is not related to number of
     characters. This has to do with eye movement and scanning a page from
     top to bottom, grasping a line at a time, with little or no
     left-to-right movement.>>
     That's simply incorrect. Trivial example: a line length of 5.5 inches
     is completely inappropriate for posters, slide presentations, and so
     on. You're correct that there is a certain maximum visual arc that the
     eyes can comfortably absorb in a single glance, and this does impose a
     maximum; more important still is eye movement, and this depends on
     number of saccadic leaps, not on an arbitrary maximum size.

     <<Ornamental fonts always retard reading.>>
     We agree on this. But I made a clear distinction between ornamental
     fonts and the general italics variation of a typeface, which is rarely
     significantly different from the roman variant. Yes, studies have show
     that even slight italics retard reading slightly; I'm unaware of
     studies that have demonstrated that this has any significant (to the
     reader, not statistically) effect on reading. Problem: at what point
     does an italics font become ornamental? I agree that this part is
     subjective and harder to pin down.

     <<If we begin to think in terms of content rather than format
     (SGML/HTML), the font decisions become less cumbersome.  A string
     tagged "variable" or "foreign" or "emphasis" lends itself to
     translation and conversion more readily than a string tagged "bold" or
     "italic" or "font-specific.">>
     Agreed. but we weren't talking about how to tag text, but rather about
     how it appears in final form.

     Again, I'm not trying to sound critical of Joyce. I truly am
     interested in this area, and I've formed my opinions based on fairly
     extensive reading in this area. The problem with all studies that I've
     seen is that they were extremely contextual (limited audience and
     purpose of the communication), and thus don't lend well to
     generalisations.

 --Geoff Hart     @8^{)}     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
 Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Post Message:	TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Get Commands:	LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU with "help" in body.
Unsubscribe:	LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU with "signoff TECHWR-L"
Listowner:	ejray -at- ionet -dot- net