Hello!  I'm new to Salesforce Development.  I've been asked to display only the first 250 characters of a field.

If I try

 <apex:outputField value="{!LEFT(item.Description,250)}" />

I get the error
Incorrect parameter for function LEFT(). Expected Text, received Object

If I try

  <apex:outputText value="{!LEFT(item.Description,250)}" />

I don't get any errors but all of my whitespace is gone, rendering the field unreadable.  

item.Description is a textarea.  

Any advice is appreciated.  Thanks!