Ling Length - Presentations - Articles about Computing

A line length basically is the width of any given column. There could be documents which have only one column, some have more than one column.

In general, the bigger the type size the longer the line can be because there is a limit to how many letters or words you can have on any given line. The length of the line is measured in picas or inches. In preparing the line length or in considering it, it is important to allow for margins and when allowing for margins keep in margins that that will reduce the possible length of the full line.

Columns will dig in to the length of the line as well, because there is an additional space in between the columns.

Ragged lines are sometimes easier to read because otherwise you sometimes have an annoying space in the margin. Think about the tradeoff of having a fully-justified line along both sides.

You can vary the width on a page in the newsletter - some columns may be wider than others, so the length of the line may be different in different columns. Since you might vary the typeface size as well as the width of the column it sometimes gets to be a little complicated when you want to count the average number of characters per line.

Standard commercial desktop publishing programs provide formulas for the spacing and the positioning of columns in the way that looks best. Start with their preset applications or suggestions when you prepare your own newsletter unless you have a very specific and legitimate reason for changing it.