Can anyone point me to research or discussions about the optimal width of text columns for readability/compression?

Thanks in advance!

Steve

Hi Steve

I've wondered about the same topic myself, and I've found this article helpful:

http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/nov02.asp

The article is a bit academic, but here's the conclusion: "Users tend to read faster if the line lengths are longer (up to 10 inches). If the line lengths are too short (2.5 inches or less) it may impede rapid reading. Finally, users tend to prefer lines that are moderately long (4 to 5 inches)."

At our agency, we used to have a rule of thumb saying that 45 characters was approximately the right width. However, as many sites are elastic/scalable, it's becoming increasingly hard to control the text width.

Maybe someone's got a comment on that?

Regards

Morten

I tell my clients to place their copy in a small, 600-700 pixel table. Because 1) it fits on all monitor resolutions, 2) the text layout appears the same in all monitor resolutions (as compared to a percentage) and 3) it wraps lines at 60-70 characters.

All of which comes down to someting Alan said once, quoting Caples: peolple feel more comfortable reading something they are used to: 8.5" x 11" (or A4) sized letters. And smaller tables mimic that.

Plus, there is a study that says borders and frames around text increase readership by about 22%, and the stronger the contrast between border (or page background) and main table (or table background), the stronger the readership.

Interesting, thank you!