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Ruder concluded that the optimal line length for body text is 50–60 characters per line, including spaces (“Typographie”, E. Ruder). Other sources suggest that up to 75 characters is acceptable.
- What is a good line length?
- How many words should be in a line for readability?
- Why 80 characters per line?
What is a good line length?
Line length & font size
45 to 80 characters (per line) is the ideal line length for text on websites. The final number of characters per line depends on the font, but so long as your content is falling within the above parameters, you're making it as easy as possible for visitors to read your content.
How many words should be in a line for readability?
To determine line length for optimum readability, a good guideline is between 9 and 12 words for unjustified text. Fewer words may cause the sentence structure to break up, and may also result in too many hyphenations. Both of these reduce readability.
Why 80 characters per line?
The limit of the line length in 70–80 characters may well have originated from various technical limitations of various equipment. The American teletypewriters could type only 72 CPL, while the British ones even less, 70 CPL. In the era of typewriters, most designs of the typewriter carriage were limited to 80–90 CPL.
