length of text lines

Is there a maximum desirable text line length?

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.
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.

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.

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

Robert Clendaniel
BayLogic Internet Marketing LLC
robert(at)baylogic.com
http://www.baylogic.com/

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