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From: John Hendy <jw.hendy@gmail.com>
To: Michael Strey <mstrey@strey.biz>
Cc: emacs-orgmode <emacs-orgmode@gnu.org>,
	"J. David Boyd" <jdavidboyd@adboyd.com>
Subject: Re: setting left margin in PDF output of ORG file
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 18:13:35 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <CA+M2ft-S_SXoiOxpjAF3tGaw7ey09zmOBFvx0_ci3Dw_Q2XGJQ@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <87y4ypk12s.fsf@strey.biz>

On Mon, Apr 28, 2014 at 8:58 AM, Michael Strey <mstrey@strey.biz> wrote:
>
> On 2014-04-25, John Hendy wrote:
>> I have to ask: is whatever was once considered the golden ratio for
>> text-to-whitespace in printed material, or even used by Gutenberg
>> himself for proper typesetting considered relevant/best practice
>> today?
>
> Yes, at least partly.  "Verachtet mir die alten Meister nicht!" (Do not
> condemn the old masters!) -- Richard Wagner

Fair enough, but let's not forget that "the old masters" of the
medical profession around that time were practicing bloodletting.

>
>> Default Org -> LaTeX article looks *ugly as all hell* to me.
>
> Check the Komascript classes.
>
>> Other than theoretical principle, is there evidence that readers
>> prefer the look of the default LaTeX article sizing?
>
> Beyond all aesthetic meanings, there are some practical aspects that are
> valid for all presentations of text to readers.  The most important rule
> is that the number of characters per line shall not exceed 70.  Together
> with the chosen font, its size, and tracking, this rule defines the
> width of the type area.  Together with the interlinear space, this rule
> is relevant for the readability.  The longer the line, the larger (but
> not to large!) the interlinear space.
>

This is more what I was looking for, especially if there have been
some studies on something like reading speed, comprehension, or
perhaps some quantifiable measure of eye fatigue. After you wrote
this, I definitely recognize that almost every journal, magazine, and
newspaper article is in column format. I don't work in academia or
write journal articles, but I do work at a very large technology
company (manufacturing, consumer goods, advanced materials, etc., not
software) and I've never seen a column formatted internal technical
report.

So my comment was more about inquiring why these conventions aren't
followed if they're so vastly superior. I'd have figured I'd run into
at least *some* teacher/professor at some point in my life who
requested/suggested/taught about the benefits of fixed
character-per-line typesetting?

> Thus for printed papers where the most economical use of paper is
> important, a multi-column layout is the way to go to get the smallest
> margins.

Also makes sense, and I hadn't thought about that -- default LaTeX
just spits out an island of text some several inches in from all edges
of the page, which never made sense to me (unless maybe I was writing
a book, as that's the sort of look in connotes).


John

>
>
> --
> Michael Strey
> www.strey.biz
>

  reply	other threads:[~2014-04-28 23:13 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 19+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2014-04-23 14:48 setting left margin in PDF output of ORG file J. David Boyd
2014-04-23 14:54 ` Bastien
2014-04-23 16:59   ` J. David Boyd
2014-04-23 17:41     ` John Hendy
2014-04-23 18:24       ` J. David Boyd
2014-04-23 17:47     ` Nick Dokos
2014-04-23 18:25       ` J. David Boyd
2014-04-24 10:29 ` Michael Strey
2014-04-25 19:01   ` John Hendy
2014-04-25 19:31     ` Martin Schöön
2014-04-25 19:51       ` Thomas S. Dye
2014-04-25 19:57         ` Martin Schöön
2014-04-28 13:58     ` Michael Strey
2014-04-28 23:13       ` John Hendy [this message]
2014-04-28 23:23       ` John Hendy
2014-04-29  0:06         ` Thomas S. Dye
2014-04-29  2:47           ` John Hendy
2014-04-25 20:19 ` Achim Gratz
2014-04-26 12:23   ` J. David Boyd

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