Typographic Style
For best legibility, typographic manuals suggest that columns should contain roughly 60 characters per line. One formula suggests multiplying the point size of the font by 2 to reach how wide a column should be in picas — in effect a column width of 24 ems. Following these guidelines usually results in multiple narrow columns being favored over a single wide column. Historically, books containing predominantly text generally have around 40 lines per column. However, this rule of thumb does not apply to more complex text that contain multiple images or illustrations, footnotes, running heads, folios, and captions.
Column contrast refers to the overall color or greyness established by the column, and can be adjusted in a number of ways. One way is to adjust the relationship between the width and height of the column. Another way is to make adjustments to the typeface, from choosing a specific font, to adjusting weight, style, size and leading. Column contrast can be used to establish hierarchy, to balance the page composition, and to visually activate areas of the page.
Read more about this topic: Column (typography)
Famous quotes containing the word style:
“We are often struck by the force and precision of style to which hard-working men, unpracticed in writing, easily attain when required to make the effort. As if plainness and vigor and sincerity, the ornaments of style, were better learned on the farm and in the workshop than in the schools. The sentences written by such rude hands are nervous and tough, like hardened thongs, the sinews of the deer, or the roots of the pine.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)