User Comments

1. 

   10/31/08

   Profitimo

   I have never really thought about it. Thank you for bringing this up, now I am off to researching on whats the ideal.

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2. 

   10/31/08

   Duilen

   I would say somewhere between 350-600px.

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3. 

   10/31/08

   bradhart

   Duilen is correct and most of it will depend on how wide your blog layout is and how much other stuff you have on the page.

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4. 

   10/31/08

   buddhaofhollywood

   it depends from how far you are looking

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5. 

   10/31/08

   JayNeely

   Around 400-450 pixels. The readability standard is 2 & 1/2 alphabets. So:
   
   abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm
   
   (Though adjust for font size, clearly. BlogCatalog, for instance, uses a smaller font.)

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   1. 

      11/01/08

      Louise

      I'd agree with that -- if you have to scroll right to see the end of the line you're in trouble! Remember, most people have small screens...
   2. 

      11/01/08

      bradhart

      @louise: this is why professionally done theme are all sized around 970 to 980 pixels wide or the older standard of 800 pixels, either way the important information i.e. the text also needs to be on the left side of the screen.
6. 

   11/01/08

   lvs

   but how do the pixels translate into characters. I am still not clear what 350 pixels or 400 pixels means?

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   1. 

      11/01/08

      bradhart

      It all depends on your theme and how it is written. Pixels is meaningless unless you know how to code your theme. If you don't you should learn how, making your blog look right is the number one thing bloggers fail to do. You will use a variety of text sizes in a single content window so you need to think of what is important and how it will appear to the visitors.
   2. 

      11/01/08

      JayNeely

      68-80 characters.
7. 

   11/01/08

   thefloatingfrog

   12 words approx:
   
   
   
   The ideal line length for text layout is based on the the physiology of the human eye... At normal reading distance the arc of the visual field is only a few inches - about the width of a well-designed column of text, or about 12 words per line. Research shows that reading slows and retention rates fall as line length begins to exceed the ideal width, because the reader then needs to use the muscles of the eye and neck to track from the end of one line to the beginning of the next line. If the eye must traverse great distances on the page, the reader is easily lost and must hunt for the beginning of the next line. Quantitative studies show that moderate line lengths significantly increase the legibility of text.
   
   Web Style Guide - Basic Design Principles for Creating Website
   Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton
   2nd edition, page 97.

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