On Mon, Apr 28, 2014 at 8:58 AM, Michael Strey <mst...@strey.biz> wrote: > > On 2014-04-25, John Hendy wrote: >> I have to ask: is whatever was once considered the golden ratio for >> text-to-whitespace in printed material, or even used by Gutenberg >> himself for proper typesetting considered relevant/best practice >> today? > > Yes, at least partly. "Verachtet mir die alten Meister nicht!" (Do not > condemn the old masters!) -- Richard Wagner
Fair enough, but let's not forget that "the old masters" of the medical profession around that time were practicing bloodletting. > >> Default Org -> LaTeX article looks *ugly as all hell* to me. > > Check the Komascript classes. > >> Other than theoretical principle, is there evidence that readers >> prefer the look of the default LaTeX article sizing? > > Beyond all aesthetic meanings, there are some practical aspects that are > valid for all presentations of text to readers. The most important rule > is that the number of characters per line shall not exceed 70. Together > with the chosen font, its size, and tracking, this rule defines the > width of the type area. Together with the interlinear space, this rule > is relevant for the readability. The longer the line, the larger (but > not to large!) the interlinear space. > This is more what I was looking for, especially if there have been some studies on something like reading speed, comprehension, or perhaps some quantifiable measure of eye fatigue. After you wrote this, I definitely recognize that almost every journal, magazine, and newspaper article is in column format. I don't work in academia or write journal articles, but I do work at a very large technology company (manufacturing, consumer goods, advanced materials, etc., not software) and I've never seen a column formatted internal technical report. So my comment was more about inquiring why these conventions aren't followed if they're so vastly superior. I'd have figured I'd run into at least *some* teacher/professor at some point in my life who requested/suggested/taught about the benefits of fixed character-per-line typesetting? > Thus for printed papers where the most economical use of paper is > important, a multi-column layout is the way to go to get the smallest > margins. Also makes sense, and I hadn't thought about that -- default LaTeX just spits out an island of text some several inches in from all edges of the page, which never made sense to me (unless maybe I was writing a book, as that's the sort of look in connotes). John > > > -- > Michael Strey > www.strey.biz >