MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - On ideal paragraph and sentence lengths for e-books

dwig · 10-31-2005, 05:26 PM

I have to agree to disagree with Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti. The only time the short sentence/paragraph argument holds any water is when you are writing non-literature and specifically targeting a sub-set of the ebook readers, those using severly limited screens like cell phones.

I've never felt the reading ebooks on a device that can display text with a proper line length is at all difficult and I've read 100's of books of literature by classic authors. By "proper line length" I'm refering to the long held print media standard of approximately 40 characters (~35-45 when proportionally spaced) per line. This length has been proven to yield the maximum readability. My current device, a Sony UX-50, yields 35-40 characters/line using MobiPocket and my favorite text size. BTW, this is why the "fine print" on contracts is so hard to read. Its not the small size but the fact that the lines are massively long in terms of character count.

10-31-2005, 05:26 PM	#4
dwig Wizard Posts: 1,613 Karma: 6718479 Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Paradise (Key West, FL) Device: Current:Surface Go & Kindle 3 - Retired: DellV8p, Clie UX50, ...	I have to agree to disagree with Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti. The only time the short sentence/paragraph argument holds any water is when you are writing non-literature and specifically targeting a sub-set of the ebook readers, those using severly limited screens like cell phones. I've never felt the reading ebooks on a device that can display text with a proper line length is at all difficult and I've read 100's of books of literature by classic authors. By "proper line length" I'm refering to the long held print media standard of approximately 40 characters (~35-45 when proportionally spaced) per line. This length has been proven to yield the maximum readability. My current device, a Sony UX-50, yields 35-40 characters/line using MobiPocket and my favorite text size. BTW, this is why the "fine print" on contracts is so hard to read. Its not the small size but the fact that the lines are massively long in terms of character count.