Design, especially for the Web, is a creative endeavor. But it also relies on some specific scientific principles in order to create the most optimal results. Jacci Howard Bear offers these four steps for ensuring the column widths you choose for your designs actually suit your project’s type fonts.

1. First, learn the alphabet-and-a-half rule. If you take the alphabet at 26 characters and add half (13) to it, you get 39 characters, which Howard Bear claims is the ideal line length for any project, "regardless of type size."

2. Next, measure the line length in inches or picas for your chosen body copy font using the alphabet-and-a-half rule.

3. Third, apply the points-times-two rule to your text. If you take the type size of your body text, say 12 points, and multiply it by two (24), the result is your ideal line length in picas. So in the example, your ideal column width would be 24 picas (or approximately 4 inches).

4. Lastly, compare the line length measurements for your chosen font using each formula and then set your column width appropriately. The result? The most readable text possible, she says.

For more information, read Howard Bear’s column here.