The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 51, December 4, 2005, Article 21

THE E-SYLUM LINE BREAK SURVEY

Last week I asked for opinions on the use of line
breaks in E-Sylum messages.  Before publishing
each issue, I insert line breaks to keep each line
to about 70 characters or less.  This is meant to
ensure readability on the widest range of devices.
Is it still necessary?  Here's what some readers
had to say:

NO LINE BREAKS: Ray Williams, Bob Neale and
others wrote against keeping the line breaks.

John Isles writes: "Just a note to let you know
my slight preference for E-Sylum paragraphs to
have no line breaks.  I print it to read it, and
this would save some paper.  I have no problem
with the 70-character lines though."

Dave Kellogg writes: "The format with NO line breaks
works well at my end.  It fills about 2/3 of my screen.
(Your paragraph with line breaks at about 70 characters
fills about1/2 my screen and results in an approximate
55 character line.) I continue to enjoy your weekly
editions and appreciate greatly the effort you take
to publish them."

Howard Spindel writes: "All modern email clients
perform wrapping to fit their viewing windows.
When you provide hard line breaks in emails you
send, you interfere with the email client's wrapping.
This can cause undesirable effects - for example,
the email client can wrap a line and then encounter
your hard line break shortly thereafter on the next
line which creates a long/short repeating pattern
of lines.

Best practice is to avoid hard line breaks in email.
This allows the email client to format the lines to
match the viewing window the end user has selected."

YES, KEEP THE LINE BREAKS: Adrián González Salinas,
Gary Dunaier and others wrote for keeping the line
breaks in:

Ralf Boepple writes: "Please stick to the 70 characters
line break. While it doesn't really make any difference
on screen, I've had unpleasant results printing it out.
And I do print it out, despite the fact that it is an
electronic publication, because I don't always have the
time to read it immediately!"

Ken Schultz writes: "This week's edition prompts me to
write you and request a 70 character line limit.  Your
2nd test paragraph is irritatingly hard to read with
every other line containing only a few characters on
my Yahoo mail account."

BOTTOM LINE: Status Quo.
While I agree with Howard Spindel that most email
programs handle (or at least are *supposed* to handle)
text without line breaks, it seems that web-based email
isn't there yet.  While keeping the line breaks would
be preferable to some, eliminating them would be a
bigger problem for others.  So for the time being at
least, I'll continue to insert the line breaks.

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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