Article ID: 212036
Article Last Modified on 12/6/2000
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition
This article was previously published under Q212036
SUMMARY
When you type a Microsoft Word document, you may want to have a certain number of characters on each line of text. If the characters are formatted in a monospace font, it is possible to calculate the horizontal printable space between the margins of the document required to produce a desired number of characters per line in the document.
MORE INFORMATION
The following formula can be used to calculate the necessary space between margins to produce a certain number of characters (also referred to as columns) per line:
Desired Characters Per Line (columns)
------------------------------- = Required Print Area
Font Size (expressed in characters per inch) in Inches
Monospace fonts such as TrueType Courier New are made up of characters with equal widths. This attribute allows the creation of documents with specific numbers of characters per line. Proportional fonts contain characters of varying widths that do not facilitate the creation of certain numbers of characters per line.
NOTE: "Characters per line" in documents is sometimes referred to as "Columns per line."
The following table lists some commonly used font sizes:
Characters Font
per inch size
----------------------
5 24
7.5 16
10 12
12 10
The following example illustrates how to apply the formula.
If you need to create a document with 120 characters per line using a 12-character-per-inch font, use the following formula:
120 characters
-------------------------- = 10 inches
12 characters per inch (10 points)
The printable area required for this example is 10 inches. To obtain a 10-inch printable area on a standard 8.5-by-11-inch page, use the following parameters:
Font: Use a monospace font (such as Courier)
Orientation: Landscape
Left margin: .5 inch
Right margin: .5 inch
Additional query words: cpi monspaced
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