Good typography should support comprehension and focus attention
on the text rather than on the typography itself. In other words, if the
reader is too busy ogling the cool letter forms they might be distracted
and miss what the words are saying.

I've worked as a graphic designer working with typography for over
30 years, it's my day job, and I've seen some horrible self-published
typesetting over the years.

I want the reader to get pulled into my story, and not be confused by
a hard to read font or slowed down by line lengths that are either too
long or too short. In a sense, I want the words to be 'invisible' on the
page to the reader, and to be a smooth, seamless read.

I don't want a situation where the very printed words on the page are
fighting with the reader. There are enough variables for writers to
deal with without creating another obstacle that can easily be avoided.   

Below are some basics that will help readability from a typesetting
perspective.   

 

LINE LENGTH   

 
Optimal line length is about 12 words per line. Some lines might
go down to 10 or up to 14 but overall the average should be
about 12. I find that 16 words per line is the maximum I would
want to go. What you have been reading thus far is within these
parameters

You might ask, 'why?' Why not 30 words across the line, or only
4 words per line? Well, too many words per line makes it harder for the reader's eyes to find the beginning of the next line down.
Too few words and
the reader's eyes
will get tired of
the many times
his/her eyes need
to drop down to
the next line.
It is something that has been work out by typographers over
many years. It's nothing new.


THE FONT and POINT SIZE

Again, we are going to make the reading easy on the eyes
by making the font easy to read. Never use fonts that are difficult
to read. This sounds like common sense but I've seen self-published
works typeset in scripts and fonts reserved for headlines. A poorly
written story cannot be improved by a 'flashy' or 'fancy' font.
Keep the font simple and easy to read. Some fonts that work well
are: Minion Pro, Baskerville, Sabon, New Times Roman, and there
are many others. These fonts are all serif fonts. Serifs are the little
'wedge' things at the ends of the letters. They are not there to make
the fonts look fancy, they serve a purpose, and that is to make it
easier for the reader's eyes to sight horizontally along the copy as
he/she reads. It's yet another way to make it easier for the reader.

Don't make the point size too small. For ebooks it's not as important
as the page can be enlarged on the screen but for print, keep the font
around 12 point, give or take a point or two, depending on the font
used. Some fonts look larger than others even though they are the
same point size. This is usually due to the 'x' height of the letters,
or the height of the lower case letters and specifically the letter 'x'.


JUSTIFY THE COPY

justifying the copy makes it a bit easier for the reader than say flush left,
rag right copy. If you do decide to flush left, rag right (as I am doing here)
keep the the rag close in length from one line to the next. 

Also, single space the lines. Not too tight or too open. It's safe to
go with the default single space settings. It's too tight if letters are
touching letters from two different lines. It's too open if it starts
to look like double spacing. Again the reason for this is to give the
eyes less work to do when dropping down to the next line or
legibility of font.

Finally, indent the first line of the paragraphs, or add a space between
paragraphs, but not both. I prefer the more tradition indents. If you
do indent, it's not necessary to indent too much. Keep it around
2 - 4 letter spaces.  

Well, those are the basics. Like I mentioned, this is nothing new.
The information I put forward is common knowledge among typographers,   

graphic designers and, alas, typesetters (who were becoming unemployed
in the 1990s). 






 

--edited by Robert G. Moons on 6/28/2014, 4:26 PM--