302 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1912. 
the far side of the desk. (As a rule books should not be too large or 
heavy to be held in the hand.) The appended typographical table shows 
the minimum requirements, in the opinion of the Committee, for the 
various ages given; the dimensions being given in a form which can 
be understood and utilised by readers unacquainted with the technical 
terms used by printers. 
Typographical Table. 
ae ate Maximum ° 
Minimum | Minimum ae : Maximum 
Age of Height of Length of area hs ef Ene Length 
Reader Face of Short| Alphabet of Spaced sate Ba 100 mm or Measure of 
Letters Small Letters P bel sereia’s Line 
Under 7 yrs. 3-5 mm. 96 mm. 5 mm. 12 
or 272 pt. or 14 pt. 
7to8yrs. . 2°5 mm. 72 mm. 3°6 mm. 16 100 mm. 
or 204 pt. or 10 pt. or 4 in. 
8to9yrs. . 2:;0 mm. 55 mm. 2mm. 20 93 mm. 
or 156 pt. or 6 pt. or 3% in. 
9 to 12 yrs... 18mm. , 50mm. 2mm. 22 93 mm. 
| or 143 pt. or 6 pt. or 34% in. 
Over 12 yrs.| 158mm. | 47mm. 1-8 mm. 24 93 mm. 
or +; inch or 133 pt. or 5 pt. or 3% in. 
1 } 
linch = 25-4 mm. 1 point = 4 inch = 0353 mm. 
Specimens of printed matter conforming with the above table will be found in a 
Supplement. The four-inch steel rule ‘ Chesterman 410 D’ is convenient for these 
measures. 
The sizes and spacing of the type suggested for age eight to nine 
years may be adopted for older readers, including practised adults. 
The column giving the minimum length of the alphabet of the 
small letters (i.e., not capitals) affords a measure of the breadth of 
the types. Strictly speaking, this cannot be measured by the reader 
of a book. A sufficiently good estimate can be made when it is 
recollected that there are twenty-six letters in the alphabet, and accord- 
ingly a word of thirteen letters should not fall short, to a material 
extent, of half the lengths stated in the third column. Thus the 
word ‘ typographical’ should measure nearly 25 mm. in type adopted 
for readers under twelve. (This may be tested in the examples 
given in the Supplement.) A rough rule may be given thus: The 
number of letters per running inch or 25 mm. should not on the 
average exceed— 
6 or 7 letters for readers under 7 years. 
8 or 9 3 7 from 7 to 8 ,, 
11 or 12 i * PESrte. 8Ols 5 
13 ” ” ” 9 to 12 ” 
13 or 14 # over WW: © 55 
By ‘ interlinear space’ is meant the vertical distance between the 
bottom of a short letter and the top of a short letter in the next line 
below. This space between the lines should vary in proportion to the 
size of the type. Too little space is a source of fatigue in reading, 
