If you use a computer or mobile device, you probably read hundreds of lines of text every day. Maybe you’ve noticed that some text is a lot harder to read than other text. There are a lot of factors that make text harder or easier to read: the size, the spacing, the color, the contrast against the background. Of course, the font choice plays a big part too.
When it comes to designing layouts with text, you should also consider the line length. Typographers refer to the line length as the measure of the text. Depending on the size of the device, you might be limited to a maximum width. Some mobile devices are as narrow as 320 pixels wide when held in portrait.
But on wider screens, you have a lot more space to work with, and it might be worth setting a maximum width for your text to maintain a comfortable line length for reading. 60 to 75 characters or 10 to 12 words is widely considered as the ideal length.
If you want to set the maximum width for textbooks in Penpot, you’ll need to set the width in pixels.
To work out the correct number of pixels, create a text box containing 66 characters, that’s including spaces, and use its width as your maximum width. You can always type the text here. “This box contains exactly 66 characters, open bracket with spaces and symbols exclamation. Close bracket.” It really does have 66 characters.
Bear in mind that different font sizes will change the number of characters on each line, so you’ll want to increase the line length for larger text and decrease the line length for smaller text.
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