Unless you format the page using a fixed-width font (I think courier news is one), then you really have no option for what it sounds like you want, which is to use fill in the same amount of screen space, whether it is with 20 lower case I's or 10 upper case W's. You can use PHP to break your string up based on a set number of characters though, but you're right, it will look weird if someone uses all caps or all lowers, etc.
Here's a sample script like I am talking about.
// Set this $stringlimit to whatever you want (50 in your example above)
$stringlimit = 10;
// My test string of 40 characters for use with my 10 limit.
$string = "1234567890abcdefghijABCDEFGHIJ";
$count = strlen($string);
if($count > $stringlimit){
$numlines = ceil($count/$stringlimit);
} else {
$numlines = 1;
}
$linearray = array();
for($i = 0; $i < $numlines; $i++){
$charlimitlow = $i*$stringlimit;
// echoed out.
echo substr($string, $charlimitlow, $stringlimit)."<br />";
// or put into an array for later.
$linearray[] = substr($string, $charlimitlow, $stringlimit);
}
print_r($linearray);
