3 ms·

Though varies by different kinds of content, but in reality Chinese is often noticeably denser, mainly because most Chinese "word"s are less than 2 characters,

Though varies by different kinds of content, but in reality Chinese is often noticeably denser, mainly because most Chinese "word"s are less than 2 characters, while much longer in English. Here is a good example: http://www.xinhuanet.com//english/2017-06/29/c_136403556.htm http://www.xinhuanet.com//english/2017-06/29/c_136403556.htm It's high quality translation of Chinese Premier's speech.

Dylan16807 8y ago
So about twice as dense at the same line size, but it's using much finer details and shapes. If I want to make sure all the lines are clear, I need to zoom in to about 150% for the Chinese, while the English has clear lines at 70-80%.
- aikinai 8y ago
  Maybe you're just speaking theoretically, but if you're talking about practical reading, you certainly don't need all the details. Just like English (where you can basically read with no more than a rough outline of words), you can read hanzi with full fluency even with many strokes abbreviated, illegible, etc.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 8y ago
    Right, it only needs to be big enough to be recognisable, not to clearly see every stroke without effort.
  - Dylan16807 8y ago
    I'm not speaking theoretically at all. Obviously you can shrink both. But my guess is you need to keep the Chinese bigger. I don't know if it's 1:1. I can't read Chinese so I can't give exact legibility numbers. But when I shrink the text closer to the limits of legible English, with letters still basically intact, many of the Chinese characters are completely destroyed (while some are perfectly fine, but with more information per character losing any of them is much worse).
    - aikinai 8y ago
      Sorry, replying very late, but I do read Japanese and you can go very small and still read it. There’s enough context and humans are incredibly good at seeing patterns and filling in details. Early computer fonts, for example, couldn’t fit nearly all the strokes and could be read just fine.

Dylan16807 8y ago

So about twice as dense at the same line size, but it's using much finer details and shapes. If I want to make sure all the lines are clear, I need to zoom in to about 150% for the Chinese, while the English has clear lines at 70-80%.

aikinai 8y ago
Maybe you're just speaking theoretically, but if you're talking about practical reading, you certainly don't need all the details. Just like English (where you can basically read with no more than a rough outline of words), you can read hanzi with full fluency even with many strokes abbreviated, illegible, etc.
- TazeTSchnitzel 8y ago
  Right, it only needs to be big enough to be recognisable, not to clearly see every stroke without effort.
- Dylan16807 8y ago
  I'm not speaking theoretically at all. Obviously you can shrink both. But my guess is you need to keep the Chinese bigger. I don't know if it's 1:1. I can't read Chinese so I can't give exact legibility numbers. But when I shrink the text closer to the limits of legible English, with letters still basically intact, many of the Chinese characters are completely destroyed (while some are perfectly fine, but with more information per character losing any of them is much worse).
  - aikinai 8y ago
    Sorry, replying very late, but I do read Japanese and you can go very small and still read it. There’s enough context and humans are incredibly good at seeing patterns and filling in details. Early computer fonts, for example, couldn’t fit nearly all the strokes and could be read just fine.