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A comment on U.S. tech giants collaborate with Chinese surveillance company. Parent comment

Re:U.S. tech giants collaborate with Chinese surveillance co... by tempguy9999 on Thursday July 18, 2019 @09:34AM (#20469585)
The reason papers adopted the thin column layout is because it suits the eye better. AIUI the eye can cover most of a narrow column and a few saccades to cover the rest. Also finding the next line is easy whereas if it's wide you may find the one above/below the correct one, or simply start reading the same line again (something that happened to me recently). I understand the optimum width is about 6 to 7 english words.

Try reading it. it is strangely archaic but it's an easy read for me, and well, what's more important, the format or the subject?

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Re:U.S. tech giants collaborate with Chinese surveillance co... by KaoruAoiShiho on Thursday July 18, 2019 @10:10AM (#20469931)
No it's not dude. The ideal length is dependent on things like font size and line spacing. Having to scroll back up and down is terrible UX. You can just google ideal line length and it'll explain it all.
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Re:U.S. tech giants collaborate with Chinese surveillance co... by tempguy9999 on Thursday July 18, 2019 @10:37AM (#20470241)
A quick goggle says various character widths per line. If the average length of an english word is 5.1 characters, then it's considerably more words than I suggested.

None of the links I found mention font/line spacing though it's a quick skim so far.

Your point about having to scroll up and down is spot on; it happens that full page fits comfortably onto my screen so I didn't need to. I forgot it wouldn't on others. If I may add to that, the link to the intercept others had to point out to me I missed because it blended in too well with the rest of the text.

Anyway, that's 1/2 hour reading set for this evening, thanks!

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