Typographic Dimensions and Conventional Wisdom: A Discrepancy?
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/stc/tc/1999/00000046/00000001/art00007
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  peer-reviewed

van der Waarde, Karel
Technical Communication Online
1999

Abstract:

Typographic guidelines are based on a combination of legibility research and personal experience. Both of these approaches seem to ignore actual documents as a source of information. An inventory of the typographic dimensions of existing texts in different genres is required to investigate and discusscurrent typographic guidelines. In this study, three dimensions - x-height,linelength and linespace - of 106 brochures, 114 scientific journals and 110 novels were measured. The results show that the design of these documents does not reflect current typographic guidelines. The results also show that document developers specify the x-height, line length and linespace within clear boundaries andthat these boundaries differ per genre. There are preferences within these boundaries and these might be based on conventional wisdom.