Re: Most readable line lengths?

["Gutierrez, Diane" <Diane -dot- Gutierrez -at- WESTGROUP -dot- COM>]

Newspapers traditionally run between 8 to 10 words per line in a column, and
books are 15 to 16 words per line on the average.  The reason for this is
not only comfort of reading; it also is based on rules of typography
(numeric proportions in letter size, leading, and typeface).

Leading (space between lines) is open to creative adjustment; the rule is
that leading is equal to point size plus about 20% in body text. (e.g. 12/14
is 12 point type with 14 point leading.) Since point size is equal to the
distance from the top of a line of type (ascenders such as l,k,b) and the
bottom of the line (descenders such as p, q, g,)it follows that leading must
be equal to at least the point size or more, because any less would have
ascenders and descenders merging into one another.  Sometimes headlines and
artistic type have leading considerably tighter than this, causing letters
to be shifted so that the protrusions don't touch.

Now for Times being larger than Garamond despite equal point sizes:  this is
because of the width of the individual letters.  The eye will tire of racing
across a row of wide letters, so the 2.5 times alphabet length is a rule
that applies to the average typeface used in print, not to all situations.
(Letterspacing, kerning and letter width adjustments affect this.)

The context of the type needs to be considered.  If most words are large,
polysyllabic and the topic fairly complex, a longer line (within the
restrictions of the page itself) might be considered so not to interrupt the
flow with excessive hyphenation and line breaks.  If the reader is expected
to skim, shorter lines might be used, as in newspapers.  If the content is
intended to be a lookup reference more than a treatise, shorter lines.  And
so on.  This is why we have graphic designers and typography is a discipline
in itself.


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=