The legibility of screen formats: Are three columns better than one?

This paper describes an experiment that tested the ease of reading specific formats that could be used for on-line publications, such as magazines. A single scrolling column with a relatively long line length, the format in which browsers frequently display web pages, was compared with a three column paged format. No differences in reading rate were found, but faster readers had better comprehension scores when reading the three column format, compared with slower readers. A single paged column, that was introduced to separate the effects of the number of columns from the method of movement (scrolled vs paged), showed that paging is faster than scrolling. In addition, with paged movement, a single wide column is read faster than three columns. This result was attributable to subjects within the age range 18-24 years. In contrast to reading performance, subjective judgements of ease of reading rated the three column format as easier to read. The results are discussed with reference to the familiarity of text formats in print and on screen and some possible differences between user's reading patterns are suggested. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.