“As a general principle, those seeking to maximize the readability of extended texts in English aim for a line length of . . . 60 to 70 characters, in text size (9 to 12 point) type. Books are typically small enough—and, more importantly, horizontally skinny enough—for this goal to be achieved in a single column of text. Magazines, in contrast, being larger and broader, are always set in several columns. So too with other professionally printed documents, such as judicial opinions published in West reporters. Legal briefs—at least most of them—are set in single columns like books, but on magazine-size pages. These factors create a line length well outside the recommended zone . . . .”
Derek H. Kiernan-Johnson, Telling Through Type: Typography and Narrative in Legal Briefs, 7 J. ALWD 87, 110-111 (2010) (internal citations omitted).
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