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There is a formula like that of Bringhurst for the 66 characters to calculate the height of the cage of the text? or is it just a question of personal pleasure?

for examples i have found this two command in classicthesis.sty

   \areaset[current]{336pt}{750pt} % ~ 336 * factor 2 + 33 head + 42 \the\footskip 
   \areaset{336pt}{761pt} % 686 (factor 2.2) + 33 head + 42 head \the\footskip 10pt

what means:

686 (factor 2.2) + 33 head + 42 head \the\footskip 10pt

and

 ~ 336 * factor 2 + 33 head + 42 \the\footskip

?

Aurelius
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  • You probably find your answer here: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/59626/nicely-force-66-characters-per-line – Jörg Aug 20 '12 at 12:41

1 Answers1

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There are a couple of options to make the result pleasing. This is meant in the sense that it conforms with layouts of historical books and these layouts are used very often in many books. Bringhurst dedicates chapter 8 of his book (shaping the page) to this topic. Since I cannot show his original work, I prepared this page layout I like, which is based on one of his suggestions.

page layout example

All the numbers are given in pt. The 42 pt are supposed to be 40 as well, but the page dimensions were given first. A two page spread based on these dimensions would look like this:

example page

Most of the times, 'shaping the page' would have to be done first, since the desired font should now have 66 characters per line if a readable size is used.

Andy
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