Re: Optimal line length for sales documents in pdf

[Sean Brierley <sean -dot- brierley -at- gerberscientific -dot- com>]

Hi,

Why were you told the width of your eyes was a good length? Is there
research to support that?

When I began, I was told "four inches" was a good line width. Being a
horsey kind of guy, that's always stuck with me, but I can't support it
with research.

Anyway, ignoring multiple column requirements and that pesky
print-versus-online thing, here's what a quick search on the Web found:

   - 50 to 60 characters per line
   http://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability
   - 66 characters per line http://webtypography.net/2.1.2
   - 95 characters per line
   https://viget.com/inspire/the-line-length-misconception
   - 9-12 words per line
   http://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fontology/level-2/text-typography/length-column-width
   - Looking at the 8,5x5,5 document I have up, I use about 70 characters,
   10 words, 4.125 inches.
   - Looking at an A4-designed doc I set up, I use about 80 characters, 15
   words, 4.75 inches.


Cheers,

Sean

On Thu, Sep 24, 2015 at 11:20 PM, Di <dicorrie -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

> I have a new manager with a sales background.
>
> He was writing a document.
>
> I saw that he had taken our standard template for long documents, and
> removed the indent on the body text. So the document had virtually no left
> or right margins and the length of line was almost the entire width of an
> A4 page.
>
> I protested. Seven years I have been telling the staff why it is important
> to leave the indent in and keep the length of a line to about the width of
> a person's eyes.
>
> He explained. That's because you write documents that people need to read.
> This is a sales document. Sales documents are judged on the number of
> pages.
>
> I could not think of a suitable answer.
>
> I know that in responding to an rfp it is very important that the sales
> team use the formats that have been given. But this was not one of those,
> and his argument was a new one on me.
>
>
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