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Subject:RE: Line Size for page (FM 7.1) From:"Joe Malin" <jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 19 May 2005 12:02:09 -0700
| -----Original Message-----
| From: Dick Margulis [mailto:margulisd -at- comcast -dot- net]
| Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 11:50 AM
| To: Joe Malin
| Cc: TECHWR-L
| Subject: Re: Line Size for page (FM 7.1)
| How thoughtful of you!<sarcasm/>
Hmmm. Not sure what you mean.
|
|
| > At first, I used margins of
| > * 1.25" left , 1" right (right page),
| > * 1.125" left 1.75" right (left page)
|
| What's your thinking here? First, do you expect your
| customers to print duplex? If so, the margins really ought to
| be symmetric. Otherwise, your document should be designed so
| that it can be printed either one-sided or two-sided. That
| would imply equal left and right margins and a centered
| folio, eliminating the whole left page/right page thing altogether.
|
My thinking here was literally "Copy the layout from another document."
But you've pointed out that this was a mistake.
| But getting back to my question, what elements of your design
| led you to choose such an asymmetric layout?
|
Lack of experience. You know what they say, "Judgment comes from
remembering bad experiences, and bad experiences come from using bad
judgment."
| Yes there is, but line length is specified in average characters per
| line, not in inches. First you need to know what font you are
| using and
| what size you are using it at. Then you can determine the
| optimal line
| length. For book work, the maximum comfortable line length
| for extended
| reading is about 60-65 characters. For technical material that nobody
| really wants to read, though, you should try to keep it under
| 55. Some
| authorities want to push the number down to 40, and that's fine for
| newspapers and magazines; but it's a bit impractical for books.
| Customers might complain about the amount of paper you're
| forcing them
| to use if you do that. Of course you could go with narrow
| margins and a
| two-column layout if you wanted to.
|
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