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>Ed. Weiss recommends (in his book "How To Write Usable User Documentation")
that a text
>line should not be "more than 5 inches wide".
>Does anyone know if this recommendation is based on readability tests ?
>Isn't there a different "maximum width" according to the font used (i.e.
shorter lines
>with SansSerif fonts), and to the font size ?
The relevant factor isn't line length, but angle subtended. I have no
trouble reading posters. Their lines are several feet long. This would
obviously be wrong for a book I held around 30cm from my nose.
Readability tests exist. Most of the ones I've met claim that *for
continuous text* serif is easier than sans.
A "rule" that's been quoted at me recently is that column width should be about
1 1/2 alphabets. Newspaper columns are typically narrower than this, but it
seems to work for books and letters.
If I were a cassowary
On the plains of Timbuctoo,
I would eat a missionary,
Cassock, band, and hymn-book too.
-- Bishop Samuel (Soapy Sam) Wilberforce, ascribed.
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