Line Length Effects Readability:
50-60 characters per line

Having the right amount of characters on each line is key to the readability of your text. It shouldn’t merely be your design that dictates the width of your text, it should also be a matter of legibility.

The optimal line length for your body text is considered to be 50-60 characters per line, including spaces (“Typographie”, E. Ruder). Other sources suggest that up to 75 characters is acceptable. So what’s the downsides of violating this range?

Too long

If a line of text is too long the reader’s eyes will have a hard time focusing on the text. This is because the line length makes it difficult to gauge where the line starts and ends. Furthermore it can be difficult to continue onto the correct line in large blocks of text.

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Too narrow

If a line is too short the eye will have to travel back too often, breaking the reader’s rhythm. Too short lines also tend to stress readers, making them begin on the next line before finishing the current one (hence skipping potentially important words).

Presenting your information in the best possible way

Does using 2 columns help make best use of the space on the page, and help present the information clearly? For 2 separate articles on a page, a column for each might work well for that.

A Bad Idea

It would be confusing on an long page of text to expect readers to scroll way down and then jump backup to the top of the page continue reading at the top of the second column.