The Effects of Line Length and Method of Movement on Patterns of Reading from Screen

Abstract

This paper describes two experiments that explore the effect of line length (a factor influencing the legibility of print) and paging versus scrolling from screen. Long lines (100 characters) were found to be read faster than very short lines (25 characters), while comprehension remained constant. People’s judgments of the ease of reading different line lengths did not correlate with their performance. The long lines were considered least easy to read, and moderate line lengths (55 characters per line) easiest to read. When scrolling, people adopted various reading patterns which influenced reading rate. These results could not be predicted from literature on the legibility of print and suggest that designing for screen may need to be approached in a different way. The potential effects of differences between screen and paper need to be carefully considered.