Line length

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In typography, line length is the width of a block of typeset text, usually measured in units of length like inches or points or in characters per line (in which case it is a measure). A block of text or paragraph has a maximum line length that fits a determined design. If the lines are too short then the text becomes disjointed; if they are too long, the content loses rhythm as the reader searches for the start of each line.

Contents

Line length is determined by typographic parameters based on a formal grid and template with several goals in mind: balance and function for fit and readability with a sensitivity to aesthetic style in typography. Typographers adjust line length to aid legibility or copy fit. Text can be flush left and ragged right, flush right and ragged left, or justified where all lines are of equal length. In a ragged right setting, line lengths vary to create a ragged right edge. Sometimes this can be visually satisfying. For justified and ragged right settings typographers can adjust line length to avoid unwanted hyphens, rivers of white space, and orphaned words/characters at the end of lines (e.g., "The", "I", "He", "We").

Text column examples Text Line Length.png
Text column examples

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Printed text

Traditional line length research, limited to print-based text, gave a variety of results, but generally for printed text it is widely accepted that line lengths fall between 45 and 75 characters per line (cpl), though the ideal is 66 cpl (including letters and spaces). [1] For conventional books line lengths tend to be 30 times the size of the type, but between 20 and 40 times is considered acceptable (i.e., 30 × 10pt font = 300 pt line). [1] Early studies considered line lengths of 59–97 mm (about 57 cpl) optimum for 10-point font. [2] For printed works with multiple columns, 40–50 cpl is often better. [1] For justified, English-language text the minimum number of characters per line is 40; anything less than 38–40 characters often results in splotches of white spaces (or rivers) or too many hyphenations in the block of text. [1] Longer lines (85–90 cpl) may be acceptable for discontinuous text such as in bibliographies or footnotes, but for continuous text lines with more than 80 characters may be too long. Short text, such as ragged marginal notes, may be as little as 12–15 characters per line. [1] Studies have shown that short lines are often preferred over long lines by study participants, likely because they feel more at ease with format, which contradicts research suggesting longer lines are best for quick reading. [3] Punctuation should preferably hang outside the measure. [4] Generally, if the measure is wide, the leading of a text should be increased—if the measure is short, it can safely be decreased. Reverse text, i.e. white text on black, also requires more leading. [5] [6]

The experience of the reader can also be considered as a factor when determining the count of characters within text lines. For novice readers, text lines should contain between 34 and 60 characters, 45 being the optimal number. Texts for expert readers could contain between 45 and 80 characters, with an optimal count of 60 characters. [7]

Electronic text

Screen reading poses additional challenges, making the adoption of traditional line length research to the digital format problematic. [8] Unlike printed text, writing for digital media must accommodate factors such as glare, flicker, and scrolling/paging. [9]

The measure is the number of characters per line in a column of text. Using CSS to set the width of a box to 66ch fixes the measure to about 66 characters per line regardless of the text size as the ch unit is defined as the width of the glyph 0 (zero, the Unicode character U+0030) in the element's font. [10] For user agents that do not support the ch unit a value of 33em can be used as, on average, one character takes up 0.5 of a typographic em. [5]

Legibility research specific to digital text has shown that, like with printed text, line length can affect reading speed. If lines are too long it is difficult for the reader to quickly return to the start of the next line (saccade), whereas if lines are too short more scrolling or paging will be required. [11]

Researchers have suggested that longer lines are better for quick scanning, while shorter lines are better for accuracy. [3] Longer lines would then be better suited for cases when the information will likely be scanned, while shorter lines would be appropriate when the information is meant to be read thoroughly. [3] One proposal advanced that, in order for on-screen text to have the best compromise between reading speed and comprehension, about 55 cpl should be used. [11] On the other hand, there have been studies indicating that digital text at 100 cpl can be read faster than text with lines of 25 characters, while retaining the same level of comprehension. [8]

Subjective factors also play a role in line length selection for digital text. One study has found that CPL had only small effects on readability, including factors of speed and comprehension; but when asked for preferences, 60% of respondents indicated a preference for either the shortest (35 CPL) or longest (95 CPL) lines used in the study. At the same time, 100% of respondents selected either one of these quantities as being the least desirable. [12]

Calculation methods

Second page of the Spartan Type Specimen by American Type Founders (1953). The lowercase alphabet measurement for each of the sizes displayed on this page can be found on the left column. Spartan Medium Type Specimen (15602597658).jpg
Second page of the Spartan Type Specimen by American Type Founders (1953). The lowercase alphabet measurement for each of the sizes displayed on this page can be found on the left column.

There are a few methods to calculate line length to fit the intended average count of characters that such lines should contain based on the factors listed above. Most, if not all, of these methods use the length of the lowercase alphabet (LCA) as a reference for its calculation. [13] The lowercase alphabet (a measurement of the array of characters of the hegemonic roman alphabet from a to z in typographic points) was sometimes included in type specimen booklets. If not available, the first step to calculate the line length for all these methods is the measurement of the LCA at the size that will be ultimately used.

The first of these methods consists of an adjacency matrix that positions the LCA in points on the x axis and the line length in picas on the y axis. The matrix is used by locating the number closest to the previously calculated LCA on the left column of the matrix and then scanning across the columns the number of characters that one would like to set in the text line. Once the number is located, the top row of the selected column will indicate the ideal line length. [13]

The second method consists of a formula that uses the LCA as a unit in a rule of three calculation. [7] Given that the lowercase alphabet has 26 characters, multiplying LCA by 1.75 roughly yields the optimal number of characters for novice readers (26 × 1.75 = 45.5 [ ≈ 45]). Multiplying the optimal number of character by 0.75 yields the minimum number of characters for novice readers (45.5 × 0.75 = 34.125 [≈ 34]), while multiplying this same number by 1.5 roughly yields the maximum number of characters for novice readers (45.5 × 1.5 = 68.25 [≈ 60]).

The third known method is also a formula (LCA’ × Cρ[S] = Ll) that consists of multiplying a modified version of LCA (the lowercase alphabet plus a space character [LCA’]) by the desired number of characters (Cρ) multiplied by a constant of 0.0345 (S). [14]    

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Typography</span> Art of arranging type

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing (leading), and letter-spacing (tracking), as well as adjusting the space between pairs of letters (kerning). The term typography is also applied to the style, arrangement, and appearance of the letters, numbers, and symbols created by the process. Type design is a closely related craft, sometimes considered part of typography; most typographers do not design typefaces, and some type designers do not consider themselves typographers. Typography also may be used as an ornamental and decorative device, unrelated to the communication of information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Type design</span> Art of designing typefaces and fonts

Type design is the art and process of designing typefaces. This involves drawing each letterform using a consistent style. The basic concepts and design variables are described below.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Typeface</span> Set of characters that share common design features

A typeface is a design of letters, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size, weight, slope, width, and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.

In writing, a space is a blank area that separates words, sentences, syllables and other written or printed glyphs (characters). Conventions for spacing vary among languages, and in some languages the spacing rules are complex. Inter-word spaces ease the reader's task of identifying words, and avoid outright ambiguities such as "now here" vs. "nowhere". They also provide convenient guides for where a human or program may start new lines.

Koppa or qoppa is a letter that was used in early forms of the Greek alphabet, derived from Phoenician qoph (𐤒). It was originally used to denote the sound, but dropped out of use as an alphabetic character and replaced by Kappa (Κ). It has remained in use as a numeral symbol (90) in the system of Greek numerals, although with a modified shape. Koppa is the source of Latin Q, as well as the Cyrillic numeral sign of the same name (Koppa).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emphasis (typography)</span> Typographical distinction

In typography, emphasis is the strengthening of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text, to highlight them. It is the equivalent of prosody stress in speech.

In typography, leading is the space between adjacent lines of type; the exact definition varies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Letter case</span> Uppercase or lowercase

Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals and smaller lowercase in the written representation of certain languages. The writing systems that distinguish between the upper- and lowercase have two parallel sets of letters: each in the majuscule set has a counterpart in the minuscule set. Some counterpart letters have the same shape, and differ only in size, but for others the shapes are different. The two case variants are alternative representations of the same letter: they have the same name and pronunciation and are typically treated identically when sorting in alphabetical order.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pica (typography)</span> Unit of length

The pica is a typographic unit of measure corresponding to approximately 1⁄6 of an inch, or from 1⁄68 to 1⁄73 of a foot. One pica is further divided into 12 points.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Point (typography)</span> Measurement unit used in typography

In typography, the point is the smallest unit of measure. It is used for measuring font size, leading, and other items on a printed page. The size of the point has varied throughout printing's history. Since the 18th century, the size of a point has been between 0.18 and 0.4 millimeters. Following the advent of desktop publishing in the 1980s and 1990s, digital printing has largely supplanted the letterpress printing and has established the desktop publishing (DTP) point as the de facto standard. The DTP point is defined as 1⁄72 of an international inch (1/72 × 25.4 mm ≈ 0.353 mm) and, as with earlier American point sizes, is considered to be 1⁄12 of a pica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All caps</span> Text with all capital letters

In typography, text or font in all caps contains capital letters without any lowercase letters. For example: THIS TEXT IS IN ALL CAPS. All-caps text can be seen in legal documents, advertisements, newspaper headlines, and the titles on book covers. Short strings of words in capital letters appear bolder and "louder" than mixed case, and this is sometimes referred to as "screaming" or "shouting". All caps can also be used to indicate that a given word is an acronym.

Line breaking, also known as word wrapping, is breaking a section of text into lines so that it will fit into the available width of a page, window or other display area. In text display, line wrap is continuing on a new line when a line is full, so that each line fits into the viewable window, allowing text to be read from top to bottom without any horizontal scrolling. Word wrap is the additional feature of most text editors, word processors, and web browsers, of breaking lines between words rather than within words, where possible. Word wrap makes it unnecessary to hard-code newline delimiters within paragraphs, and allows the display of text to adapt flexibly and dynamically to displays of varying sizes.

In typesetting and page layout, alignment or range is the setting of text flow or image placement relative to a page, column (measure), table cell, or tab.

Legibility is the ease with which a reader can decode symbols. In addition to written language, it can also refer to behaviour or architecture, for example. From the perspective of communication research, it can be described as a measure of the permeability of a communication channel. A large number of known factors can affect legibility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Column (typography)</span>

In typography, a column is one or more vertical blocks of content positioned on a page, separated by gutters or rules. Columns are most commonly used to break up large bodies of text that cannot fit in a single block of text on a page. Additionally, columns are used to improve page composition and readability. Newspapers very frequently use complex multi-column layouts to break up different stories and longer bodies of texts within a story. Column can also more generally refer to the vertical delineations created by a typographic grid system which type and image may be positioned. In page layout, the whitespace on the outside of the page are known as margins; the gap between two facing pages is also considered a gutter, since there are columns on both sides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margin (typography)</span> White space that surrounds the content of a page

In typography, a margin is the area between the main content of a page and the page edges. The margin helps to define where a line of text begins and ends. When a page is justified the text is spread out to be flush with the left and right margins. When two pages of content are combined next to each other, the space between the two pages is known as the gutter. The top and bottom margins of a page are also called "head" and "foot", respectively. The term "margin" can also be used to describe the edge of internal content, such as the right or left edge of a column of text.

Microtypography is a range of methods for improving the readability and appearance of text, especially justified text. The methods reduce the appearance of large interword spaces and create edges to the text that appear more even. Microtypography methods can also increase reading comprehension of text, reducing the cognitive load of reading.

In typography and computing, characters per line (CPL) or terminal width refers to the maximal number of monospaced characters that may appear on a single line. It is similar to line length in typesetting.

Miles Albert Tinker was an American author. He is "an internationally recognized authority on legibility of print" who published the results of some of the most comprehensive studies on the legibility of print ever conducted. According to Jeremy York, Tinker's work, along with his colleague Donald G. Paterson, "was a driving force behind the standardization of the print industry in the United States".

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Bringhurst, R. (1992). Horizontal Motion. The Elements of Typographic Style, pp 25-36. Point Roberts, WA: Hartley & Marks.
  2. ↑ Tinker, M. A., & Paterson, D. G. (1929). Studies of typographical factors influencing speed of reading. III. Length of line. Journal of Applied Psychology, 13(3), 205-219.
  3. 1 2 3 Ling, J., & Van Schaik, P. (2006). The influence of font type and line length on visual search and information retrieval in web pages. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 64(5), 395-404.
  4. ↑ "10 Great Tips For Improving Your Web Typography - SpyreStudios". 14 May 2010. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
  5. 1 2 Rutter, Richard. "Choose a comfortable measure - The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web" . Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  6. ↑ Boulton, Mark (13 April 2005). "Five simple steps to better typography".
  7. 1 2 Buen Unna, Jorge de. (2014). Manual de diseño editorial (4a ed., corr. y aum ed.). Somonte-Cenero, Gijón: Ediciones Trea. ISBN   9788497047623. OCLC   880551642.
  8. 1 2 Dyson, M. C., & Kipping, G. J. (1998). The Effects of Line Length and Method of Movement on Patterns of Reading from Screen. Visible Language, 32(2), 150-181.
  9. ↑ Nanavati, A. A., & Bias, R. G. (2005). Optimal line length in reading - a literature review. Visible Language, 29(2), 121-145.
  10. ↑ "<length> CSS data type" . Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  11. 1 2 Dyson, M. C., & Haselgrove, M. (2001). The influence of reading speed and line length on the effectiveness of reading from screen. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 54(4), 585-612.
  12. ↑ Shaikh, A. Dawn (July 2005). "The Effects of Line Length on Reading Online News". Usability News. 7 (2). Archived from the original on June 19, 2015.
  13. 1 2 Robert., Bringhurst (2012). The elements of typographic style (4th ed. (version 4.0) ed.). Seattle, WA: Hartley & Marks. ISBN   9780881792119. OCLC   808199932.
  14. ↑ Peña, Ernesto (2016). "Calculating line length: an arithmetic approach". Visible Language. 50 (1): 112–125.
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