links for 2007-05-29
Posted by delicious on 29 May 2007 at 12:21 am | Tagged as: Delicious
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A study examining the effects of line length on reading performance; reading rates were found to be fastest at 95 cpl.
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For cleaning up already valid CSS code
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Recommended by seoish.com
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A manifesto Seth Godin based on the book he wrote a few years ago
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Includes helpful suggestions, particularly on how to structure a sermon podcast
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A new set of analytical tools initially aimed at the blogging market but suitable for any web site.
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A beginners website/course on PHP created for web designers who have little to no programming experience.
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Wow, do I distrust that characters-per-line study! 95 cpl may please college students — the subjects of the test — but I would discourage sites that want to present substantial amounts of text to an audience that may not all be in their early twenties with perfect vision from going so wide. (Especially at smaller sizes.)
45 to 75 characters per line are recommended for printed materials by the bible of print, Robert Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style. Obviously print is a different medium, but this near-sighted 36-year-old really hates web pages that venture upwards of 80 characters on a line.
I agree with you. I do think it’s good for designers to be intentional about this — particularly for text heavy sites like UU World and blogs. Years ago I read 65 to 75 CPL for the web, based on some study, but I can’t remember where that was. Logically it takes more time for the eye to travel back and forth at 95 CPL.