Re: length of text lines

Robert L. Clendaniel <robert(at)baylogic.com> wrote:


>Is there a maximum desirable text line length?

The optimum line length for printed work is generally considered to be two
and a half lower-case alphabets (some authorities give slightly different
measurments). I think this should hold true on-screen also.

Take your chosen font and type:

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm

Measure this line. This is the best length for a line *in that font*.

Obviously, this length will vary with your font. If you use a large point
size, 2.5 alphabets will be longer (in inches) than the same typeface in a
smaller point size. If you pick a typeface which uses squat, wide
characters, then 2.5 alphabets will be longer (in inches) than for a
typeface which uses tall thin characters.

>Most larger sites seem to hard-code the width of the screen at about 580 to
>590 pixels, which always seemed to me to be a waste of screen real estate.

This is no good. 580 pixels might be right for a specific typeface at a
specific point size. For any font other than that, it will be horrible and
unreadable.

>I've generally allowed my sites' page widths to float out to about 90-95%
of
>the browser window, independent of resolution.  We work hard at keeping the
>layout decent across the range of common resolutions.

Not a good idea. See above.

>But lately it's occurred to me that another reason for hard-coding to a
>minimum width is that perhaps text is harder to read if on a line longer
>than, say, 600 pixels or so.


Yes, unless your font is something like 48 point...

>Is this the case?  Are there other pro's and con's of fixing a
>lowest-common-denominator screen width?

I think you should fix the width, but fix it according to your font size, as
explained above.

I wish there was a way to specify a line length in CSS, but if there is then
I have yet to discover it. I think this is a major omission in CSS1 (or I'm
just stupid to see it. One or the other.)


--
David Meadows [ Technical Writer | Information Developer ]
DNRC Minister for Littorasy * david(at)heroes.force9.co.uk

"I've never made plans - most of the things that have happened
 to me are accidents. All you have to do is put yourself in the
 way of a few."  -- Roger Glover

HWG hwg-theory mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA