[ghurlman]

The lowercase phi (φ) is the accepted standard denotation for the golden ratio.

[mrgoldenbrown]

ok, but how do we know that the golden ratio is the optimal ratio for lines of text?

[pearsonified]

We don't know what's universally optimal, but we can test different ratios/mathematical bases and see what the results look like.

To my eye, Golden Ratio Typography seems to hit the sweet spot.

In a future article, I'm going to talk about the notions of a "sweet spot" and a "good eye for design" and show how these concepts point to the existence of universal subjective preferences.