Optimize text for optimum length improve readability and legibility

Preface: The direct fishing is coming!

One of the keys to improving the readability of text is to keep each line of text loaded with the right number of words. This is not just a question of designing text widths, it should also be a matter of readability.

The best text length is 50-60 characters per line, including spaces ("Typographie", E. Ruder). There are also other information that does not suggest more than 75 words/lines can also be accepted. But you're going to ask, what happens when you don't do this?

Too long-if there is too much text in a line, it is hard for the user to focus on the text for long periods of time. Because the length of the text is too long it makes it difficult to notice the beginning and end of the paragraph. In addition, it is difficult to continue reading the current line for such a large chunk of text. (Translator Note: A little absent-minded, you can not find where to read.) Have you ever had that kind of experience?

Too short-if there are too few words in a line, the eye should keep glancing back and forth, damaging the reading rhythm. At the same time, each line of text is too short to make people feel nervous, this line did not read the jump to the next line (it is likely that some important words will be skipped).

The original jump to the next line of text, the subconscious will be so little excitement (as long as not too often, the reason for the above two points). So at the beginning of each line, the reader's energy is concentrated, but the focus fades away and may not be finished ("Typographie", E. Ruder).

In order to avoid the disadvantages of too long or too short text, while continuing to motivate the reader, we recommend that the amount of text to be contained in each row be controlled in 5-75 characters (translator note: 35-45 Chinese characters, 14px).

How to get the best length in web design

In web design, you can use EM or px (pixels) to achieve the best number of characters per line (using EM can achieve good results, but the operation is slightly more complex than PX). In fact, whichever you choose, to get the best results, you need to set a fixed width for your readers.

This is one of the reasons why we do not recommend using a "streaming" layout: You are actually forcing users to get a better reading experience by changing the browser window. When you think of the current display screen with so many different resolutions, it's clear that the "streaming" layout makes the text line either wide or narrow.

As you can see, at the Baymard.com station, we used the 17px Arial to render the text. Article container width is 504px, each line is about 65 characters. How many characters are displayed per line on your page? 50-75? If you want your readers to have a better reading experience, you should do so.

Extended Reading

Better Web Readability project:http://code.google.com/p/better-web-readability-project/

Debate IPad (top): Ruled and Reading http://www.typeisbeautiful.com/2010/05/2537

This article is compiled from: UCD translation Group, BOHEMIA, original address.

Source: Christian Holst, reprint please keep the source link.