Quote:
Originally Posted by vondanmcintyre
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I wonder if anyone has done a study of whether it's easier to read from a screen if text is typeset in a typically bookish way, or if it's easier with a blank line between paragraphs? Or does it depend on the person, the system? An awful lot of sites use the blank line, but does anybody know if it's a conscious choice or if it just grew that way, like Topsy?
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AFAIK there are studies (can't find any online right now though), and what they have shown is, that on a
computer monitor, it's easier to read if there is empty space between paragraphs. The empty lines helps the reader to keep track of where she is - a screen usually gives a larger "paper size" than most books. On the other hand, a 6 inch, or smaller, screen is quite a different experience, the screen size for instance are not larger than the paper size of a small book. On top of that, e-ink is very much like paper to look at.
I would say it's more fair to compare the reading experience of a small (e-ink) screen to that of a book, and in that case also lean toward the standards of printed books rather than on-screen reading.
In any case, the "ideal" formatting tends to be a very personal matter, and if one has any kind of influence on it, like with ebooks, I think you'd find that we all have our preferences. For example; I prefer a short indent, half a line space between paragraphs and full justification (left justification is simply ugly in my eyes
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