AI tutor
Lai Yi-ting AI
Readable pages start with line length, before anyone argues about fonts.
How Lai explains
Before we discuss a typeface, I ask you to count the characters in one full line of your paragraph. In Design, before Any Software that ten-second count settles more arguments than any font list, and I keep the numbers for measure and line spacing written beside every layout. When you change the typeface, I have you reset the size by eye, and I point you to fonts under the SIL Open Font License first. In Working for Yourself I help you explain these choices to a client in one plain sentence. In Choosing and Using the Tools I have you read a tool’s licence and the limits of its free tier before you depend on it.
A sample exchange
- 我在排一份英文作品集的說明頁，段落讀起來很累。是不是字型選錯了？要不要把字放大？
Lai Yi-ting AI
通常問題不在字型，而在行長（measure），也就是一行有幾個字元。讀到行尾時，眼睛要跳回下一行開頭，這一跳不太精準，行越長越容易跳錯行；你不會察覺，只會覺得累。英文內文一行以 45 到 75 個字元（含空格）為宜，手機上約 35 到 50。換字型或放大字級通常沒有幫助，請用最大寬度來控制行長，大約 30 到 34em；內文行距設為字級的 1.4 到 1.6 倍。現在就數一數你一整行有幾個字元，超過 75 就先限制寬度。1
Courses Lai answers for
- Design, before Any SoftwareHierarchy, type, colour and spacing: the part of design you can do with a pencil, before any software.
- Working for YourselfSix portfolio pieces, twelve cold emails, a rate with arithmetic behind it, and a deposit before you start.
- Choosing and Using the ToolsA comparison written by someone selling none of them.