# Word: Fitting Text to a Page **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 7, 2016, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-fitting-text-to-a-page/765284 "2016-09-07T18:15:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-fitting-text-to-a-page/765284/1 "2016-09-07T18:15:46Z")
If one is trying to squeeze in the most words per page, is there any advantage to using two columns of text per page over a conventional page of text, assuming everything else is equal (font, font size, margins, etc.)? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-fitting-text-to-a-page/765284/2 "2016-09-07T18:35:56Z")
Two columns will leave you less room for text, since in addition to the edge margins, you’ve got an extra “margin” in the middle, and you’ll see some economy-of-scale issues leading to some lines being shorter than they “ought” to be because the line break comes at a word that’s too long to fit. So you’ll actually end up with fewer words per page. The advantage to narrower columns is that it’s often easier to read. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-fitting-text-to-a-page/765284/3 "2016-09-07T18:49:18Z")
Tahoma 7 pt. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-fitting-text-to-a-page/765284/4 "2016-09-07T19:32:51Z")
For minor squeezing, you can go to paragraph, line-spacing, exactly, and enter a number in point size. 12, or 11, or 10, or smaller. You can even do decimal fractions, like 10.5 or 10.2. Careful use of this will give you more lines per page. (Making the number too small will fail and be ugly.) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-fitting-text-to-a-page/765284/5 "2016-09-07T19:44:12Z")
The reason two or more columns are used is that long lines with minimal leading between them are harder to read and easier to lose one’s place in. Because columns are narrower, a smaller font size can be used and still be easily readable. If all you want is the maximum number of words on a page, one column will give more. If you want the maximum number of words that are still easily readable to others, then two columns give an advantage. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-fitting-text-to-a-page/765284/6 "2016-09-07T19:51:53Z")
If you have frequent paragraph breaks, or if your text is a list, a one-column page may give you a lot of near-empty lines. If that’s the case, a two-column format may allow you to squeeze in more words. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-fitting-text-to-a-page/765284/7 "2016-09-07T20:01:10Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > For minor squeezing, you can go to paragraph, line-spacing, exactly, and enter a number in point size. 12, or 11, or 10, or smaller. You can even do decimal fractions, like 10.5 or 10.2. Careful use of this will give you more lines per page. (Making the number too small will fail and be ugly.) For even finer adjustments, professional layout software like InDesign and Quark allow for tracking, which is like micro-spacing horizontally (tight/normal/loose). I don’t know if you can do this in Word. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-fitting-text-to-a-page/765284/8 "2016-09-07T21:24:16Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > For even finer adjustments, professional layout software like InDesign and Quark allow for tracking, which is like micro-spacing horizontally (tight/normal/loose). I don’t know if you can do this in Word. Font \> Advanced \> Spacing Kerning options are in there, too. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-fitting-text-to-a-page/765284/9 "2016-09-08T01:27:14Z")
> [@Cartoonacy](#): > > If you have frequent paragraph breaks, or if your text is a list, a one-column page may give you a lot of near-empty lines. If that’s the case, a two-column format may allow you to squeeze in more words. Yes, exactly. But if you have relatively few paragraph breaks, then you are better off with one wide column, for this reason: Imagine a relatively wide line. Now look at the exact midpoint of that line. If it is in the space between two words, that’s wonderful, and you can split the line in half. But more often, the midpoint will be somewhere within a word. That word is going to end up on the second line. If you’re lucky, then there was enough blank space at the end of the line, that you’ll be able to get this word, together with the rest of the line, to the second line intact. But occasionally (or maybe even often) the last word(s) will end up on the _third_ line. If this happens more than a few times, you’ll be wondering how a whole paragraph ended up on Page Two. If you like hyphenating your words, then reread that paragraph, but replace “word” with “syllable”. Same result, but a bit milder. And all this is totally in addition to what others mentioned, that the blank space between the columns gives you that much less area to work with. But for lists, or where the paragraphs are short, definitely try the two-column layout, so that you can reclaim the wasted blank space at the end of the lines. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-fitting-text-to-a-page/765284/10 "2016-09-08T12:56:44Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The reason two or more columns are used is that long lines with minimal leading between them are harder to read and easier to lose one’s place in. Because columns are narrower, a smaller font size can be used and still be easily readable. > > If all you want is the maximum number of words on a page, one column will give more. If you want the maximum number of words that are still easily readable to others, then two columns give an advantage. This. In conference papers in my field, the standard is two columns because everyone wants to squeeze in as many words for the page limit. So small fonts. Ergo short lines. Really long lines of small text is a pain to read. I was surprised when LaTex came out and the default margins were _huge_. Lamport really didn’t like modest length lines with even 12pt fonts. (This also makes things like formulas, code snippets and such more space efficient for small fonts. For figures, you can do one column or span two columns depending on its size and scalability.) ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-fitting-text-to-a-page/765284/11 "2016-09-08T15:52:36Z")
Changing font size, kerning, spacing, margins, etc., just to put more words on a page will not benefit the reader. It will do just the opposite. Writing clearly, succinctly and editing superfluous words and phrases benefits the reader. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-fitting-text-to-a-page/765284/12 "2016-09-08T15:55:18Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Changing font size, kerning, spacing, margins, etc., just to put more words on a page will not benefit the reader. It will do just the opposite. Writing clearly, succinctly and editing superfluous words and phrases benefits the reader. Yeah, but after you do all that you still need to decide how many words to fit on a page. There is no right answer. It depends on your needs and those of your audience.