Effects of Splitting Text into Multiple Columns

Authors:

Vlad Andreyev - vlad@wam.umd.edu
Aleksey Martynov - alexrc@wam.umd.edu

Abstract

As large size, high-resolution displays become more common, the size of the computer users' workspace increases.  The width of a typical application window, such as a web browser, can now be over 1900 pixels, which allows for extremely long lines of text.  This study addresses the problem of readability of such wide pages.  We try to determine how much splitting text into multiple columns affects reading speed and comprehension.  Our hypothesis is that the wider pages are, the more reading speed and comprehension are improved when text is split into multiple columns.

Department of Computer Science: Direct questions and comments to the student editorial team