It should be noted that the designers of the Times typeface were working on the basis that it would be used in the narrow columns (six or eight columns of eight or nine point type to a broadsheet page) then in use. Thus, in order to avoid excessive numbers of word breaks and other related typesetting problems (rivers, etc.), they produced a face which was extremely condensed: the letters are very narrow for their height. As a result, using Times in a single column across an entire A4 or letter format page produces lines of text which are considerably too long to be read comfortably unless the font size is brought up to picture-book sizes of 14 points or so - and using letters that big runs the risk of making readers feel that they are being shouted at or talked down to. For this reason, it is generally advisable to seek another, less condensed, serif font (Palatino, maybe) for large blocks of body text on paper, or a sans face for screen use. As to why Times or clones of it it became the default proportionally spaced face for printers and graphical operating systems, gawd only knows ... | 
