Hi, I am trying to work out a way where I can accurately predict the number
of character which will "fit" into a box size.

Say I have a virtual area of 500px by 200px I need to find out how many size
8 font characters will fit into this box.

I know that I could take the average and say that the average size 8 font is
12 pixels x 12 pixels so techinically, I should be able to fit in 694
characters into the area.

(500 x 200)/144 = 694 characters

However, what given that some characters can be bigger than others (W is
wider than the letter l for example) this kills my averages I cannot get any
real accuracy and it is causing major headaches.

Any ideas more than welcome!
Thanks
M