Line length is the average number of characters per line in a text block. The page margins control the overall size of the text block, and thus have the greatest effect on line length (of course, font choice and font size also affect line length, though more finely). As the page margins increase, the line length decreases.
Shorter lines are more comfortable to read than longer lines. As line length increases, your eye has to travel farther from the end of one line to the beginning of the next, making it harder to keep your place vertically. (That’s why newspaper columns are so narrow—newspaper columns are tall and thus it’s important to make vertical tracking as easy as possible.)
While there is no blackletter rule, aim for a line length of 50 to 90 characters (including spaces). You can check the line length of a sample text using the word count function of your word processor: select a series of lines and use word count to show the number of characters in each.
You can also use the easy “alphabet test” to set line length: type every lowercase letter from a to z. You should be able to fit 2 to 3 alphabets on your line, like so—
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmno
Shorter line lengths will make a big difference in the legibility and professionalism of your document. Most nonprofessional typographers, lawyers included, make their lines too long. This is probably because most word processors set the page margins at 1 inch by default. While that was fine in ye olde days when we used monospaced fonts, it’s too small for most proportional text fonts.
Generally, page margins of 1.5 to 2 inches will give you a comfortable line length if your text is set at 12 point. But focus on getting the number of characters per line into the right range. The smaller your font size, the larger your margins will need to be, and vice versa.
For the partially sighted, the maximum acceptable line length is defined by the diameter of the magnifiers commonly available in the market: 3.25 inches. Such a column will let the user go straight down a column rather than sweeping from side to side on each line, often missing the next line. A short line contributes to legibility and readability, and not just for the partially sighted.
I find that large margins look very awkward, like elementary school students trying to stretch their book reports to 3 full pages.
As to the partially sighted, I don’t see any professional choice as an attorney that would allow for line lengths to be only 3.25 inches long. One cannot have 5.25 inches worth of margins, nor can one use multiple columns on typical professional legal documents and other professional correpsondence (noting the obvious exceptions).
One could also expect, even with only 1.5 inch margins, for someone to start talking about wasting resources (paper and trees).
If you make your margins bigger, your font size smaller, and your line spacing tighter, you will be able to fit at least as much text on the page as you did before, but the overall text block will be more attractive and easier to read.
Whitespace:
To be fair, if we try to please everyone with the amount of paper we use in letters you’d have to write it in lemon juice on recycled toilet paper. Sometimes you kinda have to accept that someone is always going to be greener than you and go for what looks nice.
What about columns? My standard software license agreement is set in 2 justified columns. I think it makes the document easier to read and no one has ever commented one way of the other. However, it does make commenting and Word Track Changes somewhat difficult
to read, as the lines linking the balloons to the modified often cross over unchanged text. I am thinking of modifying the form to no columns. Any thoughts?
P.S. You have almost convinced me to abandon Tahoma. I use it because most of my documents have my company’s logo, set in Frutiger, somewhere on them and I think having the text similar to the logo looks cleaner. More uniform. I can’t wholeheartedly condemn sans serif for this reason. Sometimes, sans serif is acceptable and can look better than a serif font.
Don’t you agree?
I like columns and have no objection to them. But the problem you raise with tracking changes is legitimate (I’m convinced that the current version of MS Word is the product of two interface designers, one who’s a genius and one who’s an idiot). Sorry I can’t be helpful on that.
Sure, I agree that sans serif fonts can work, in moderation. But if you like Frutiger—a very good sans serif choice—why use Tahoma? Why not use, you know, Frutiger? (Myriad would be another option.)
Actually, I don’t like Frutiger for text. The company logo is in Frutiger (I have no control over that.) Tahoma is close to Frutiger and I prefer it.
Great site, though.
I found it through Ken Adams’ site. He, like me, is a transactional lawyer and while I love the look of Arno and some of the others you have mentioned, I understand his point that there is value in the text being somewhat anonymous and widely available when we swap documents so much.
Thanks.