Yes, this absolutely applies to print as well!

A couple of questions: I went and looked at the study you cited for preferring longer line lengths and noticed that it cites other studies with different results, eg “Dyson and Haselgrove (2001) found that 55 characters per line were read faster than either 100 cpl or 25 cpl conditions”. This study (linked to from the one you cited) I also found very interesting: http://usabilitynews.org/reading-online-text-a-comparison-of-four-white-space-layouts/ – It seems to suggest that shorter lines (or at least, lines with margins) are read faster but understood less. Also, another significant factor is fatigue. At the moment I’m concentrating on development of a site which includes significant quantities of “journal” text (ie long articles) where fatigue could be a real issue in discouraging readers or reducing comprehension. Have you any feelings about this?

My other question concerns the use of serif or sans-serif fonts. I note that your own site uses a serif font font (Georgia) for the text – I had always read that sans-serif if preferred for online reading because of the relatively poor resolution of screens as opposed to paper. I’ve also read that serif is “thought” to be easier to read, but that studies have in fact shown no significant difference. I’ld really appreciate if you could share your thoughts on this.

PS: The Helvetica documentary appears to be available on Youtube – I’ll be tuning in to it!

so these equations are they implemented within the code of the font type or used as a guide to help draw –

baffled yet intrigued! :)

I’m looking for a simple formula (or sample text – aggregate of upper and lower case characters) to determine the approximate maximum characters per line for each line of a series of circular memorial plaques.

I’m using a custom designed typeface (Serif, not monospaced). Each line of the plaque/s has a different width (which I am able to measure/determine) due to the circular shape.

But my pea brain can’t figure out how to estimate the maximum character per line count for each line (at set type size, in custom typeface).

Is there a sample text (similar to ‘lorem ipsum’ or ‘Hamburgefonstiv’ that I can use to set the individual lines of plaque (that will give an average/indicative breakdown of charcater widths within a specific typeface)?

Hope my query makes sense.

Any/all advice greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,
Oran.

Linda, CPL is most definitely not letter-spacing in CSS (kerning is the typographical term for letter-spacing).

CPL is simply the number of characters per line. Because each font has a native character constant value, it’s possible to predict the average CPL for a particular font (and font size) set in a given width.

This exercise does not involve any kerning whatsoever.

Here’s my situation: I want to make a multi-column printout. Each “line” will be the column width. I know the length of the longest line I want to columnize. The questions that I was having to find an answer for are: What font size will be required for 2 column display? What font size for 3 columns? You have proven to me that the answer CAN be arrived at mathematically – thank you!!