On 06/06/2015 08:22 AM, Justin Lecher (jlec) wrote: > > * linewidth >> 80 (why do we have this short limit still in 2015) >
It's ancient typographic wisdom that the optimal measure (number of characters in column of text) is somewhere between 45 and 75. It varies somewhat depending on the typeface and the leading (spacing between lines, more or less), but everyone agrees that anything over 80 is uncomfortable to read. There's always one guy who will claim that he's perfectly comfortable reading a single line of text that extends into his kitchen; rather than argue, the old 80-character terminal thing gets cited. So that's not the real reason but you still hear it because it's less subjective.
