: Does ideal measure change with language? The ideal measure for single column of text is most widely accepted as around 65 characters, but does this depend on the language of the text? Some

@Rambettina927

Absolutely!

Well, it's absolute in my head any way ;)

A readable text finds the right measure based on three main variables:


Type face (and accompanying spacing preferences)
Type size
Text


Those variables are going to dictate how much room your text needs to properly set up a line.

If the language or type of writing* you're dealing with averages more characters per word it's going to need a longer line to avoid


Big gaps in justified text
Erratic line ends in flush left
Excessive hyphens


It may not be a big difference, but it should be a factor in the measure to some extent.

This factor will become less and less critical as your measure increases. If you're working at the far end of the comfortable reading spectrum (say 70 to 80 characters) there is much more room for variance in the word size.

* Academic or technical texts are notorious for their use of long words that are otherwise uncommon in a language.

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