Distributions of Print Sizes in U.S. Newspapers

Abstract

In this study, the authors measured the print sizes in 10 sections of over 100 U.S. newspapers and found that within a newspaper, the print sizes among sections may vary by more than a factor of 2 and that among newspapers, the print size of a single section may vary by a factor of more than 1.5. These findings challenge the assumption that newspapers use a standard print size and thus that persons with low vision can read all newspapers with magnifiers that are appropriate for reading 1 M print (1.45mm). The authors also give guidelines for low vision specialists in recommending magnification.