column width help
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- Blofeldt
Does anyone know of any research regarding the optimum readability width a column of website text should be?
- Nairn0
It's common practice to limit the eye to dealing with 12-15 words per line. I remember reading this years ago, but can't reference it for you. It's got something to do with the ideal ratio between average distance from readable medium, and your peripheral/horizontal scanning as well as the 'buffer' of words the brain can deal with in one shot (ie a sentence, or concept)
Have a look through your favourite newspaper - they're kind of designed for easy reading!
- unknown0
about 60 characters... but depends on type size and leading etc.
- runDMB0
Not sure about any actual research, but an old favourite print generalisation is that any line should have no more than 12 words, which I find works quite well onscreen. The width of a column is going to relate directly to the type size you are using so you need to settle on that first.
- Blofeldt0
brilliant.
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Thanks guys