Comments on: Fixed Width http://blog.onefreevoice.com/2005/10/04/fixed-width/ A Blog About Databases and Stuff Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:25:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU hourly 1 By: Dave Harding http://blog.onefreevoice.com/2005/10/04/fixed-width/#comment-216 Dave Harding Thu, 06 Oct 2005 04:29:29 +0000 http://blog.onefreevoice.com/archives/2005/10/04/75/#comment-216 I agree that text columns shouldn't be very wide. By not limiting the width of the text columns, web designers are making their pages less readable to lazy people with high screen resolutons. But people who don't have high screen resolutions or are not lazy gain the advantage of having the web page customized to their needs or wants. I agree that text columns shouldn’t be very wide. By not limiting the width of the text columns, web designers are making their pages less readable to lazy people with high screen resolutons. But people who don’t have high screen resolutions or are not lazy gain the advantage of having the web page customized to their needs or wants.

]]> By: Ed C. http://blog.onefreevoice.com/2005/10/04/fixed-width/#comment-215 Ed C. Wed, 05 Oct 2005 21:42:27 +0000 http://blog.onefreevoice.com/archives/2005/10/04/75/#comment-215 Dave, I won't argue with you about weather or not the reasoning behind the columns is less white space or not. I honestly don't know the original thinking behind it, so I'll accept that you are correct.but I can certainly understand the white space argument. However, even if it isn't the primary goal, it does lead to much better readability. Dave, I won’t argue with you about weather or not the reasoning behind the columns is less white space or not. I honestly don’t know the original thinking behind it, so I’ll accept that you are correct.but I can certainly understand the white space argument. However, even if it isn’t the primary goal, it does lead to much better readability.

]]> By: Dave Harding http://blog.onefreevoice.com/2005/10/04/fixed-width/#comment-214 Dave Harding Wed, 05 Oct 2005 15:46:28 +0000 http://blog.onefreevoice.com/archives/2005/10/04/75/#comment-214 The motovation for small column width in newspapers and other print media isn't readability. The motovation is reducing whitespace after paragraph breaks. Whitespace is wasted paper. To demonstrate, here are two copies of the GPL: http://gnuisance.net/tmp/gpl-columnless.pdf http://gnuisance.net/tmp/gpl-columns.pdf Like printed matter, websites should use columns with a fixed number of characters. 64 characters per line is the recomendation[1]. Is this even possible in HTML? [1] This assumes justification, which HTML can only partially do. The motovation for small column width in newspapers and other print media isn’t readability. The motovation is reducing whitespace after paragraph breaks. Whitespace is wasted paper. To demonstrate, here are two copies of the GPL:

http://gnuisance.net/tmp/gpl-columnless.pdf

http://gnuisance.net/tmp/gpl-columns.pdf

Like printed matter, websites should use columns with a fixed number of characters. 64 characters per line is the recomendation[1]. Is this even possible in HTML?

[1] This assumes justification, which HTML can only partially do.

]]> By: Ed C. http://blog.onefreevoice.com/2005/10/04/fixed-width/#comment-213 Ed C. Tue, 04 Oct 2005 21:03:18 +0000 http://blog.onefreevoice.com/archives/2005/10/04/75/#comment-213 I think I'm with you Gregory. Give me a web page that will fit in a 800 pixel wide web browser any day (especially if the text is centered on the page). One reason that I dislike flowing text is that I have seen countless example where flowing text makes the page makes the text very difficult to read because of things like long one-line paragraphs. Another reason why I really don't like it is if you jump between computers, or browsers, with different settings, things like hyperlinks may appear in different places on the different computers. This effects usability tremendously. I have clinked on the wrong link a number of times because I knew right where what I wanted was, only it wasn't there because the page was using flowing text and the browser was set differently. It also makes its difficult to help someone over the phone or e-mail - something I need to do often as an academic librarian. I think flowing text websites often lead to lower readability. There is a reason why books, newspapers, and other print media have columns. It makes it so you don't have to scroll your eyes (and/or head) too much - something that I need to do way to much on a many flowing text sites. Ironically - in contrast to Nielsen's assertion that one reason to not use fixed width web sites is because it may cause people to have to resize their browser in order to read them - I had to resize my browser to comfortably and efficiently read Nielsen's Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005 flowing text web page. I think I’m with you Gregory. Give me a web page that will fit in a 800 pixel wide web browser any day (especially if the text is centered on the page). One reason that I dislike flowing text is that I have seen countless example where flowing text makes the page makes the text very difficult to read because of things like long one-line paragraphs. Another reason why I really don’t like it is if you jump between computers, or browsers, with different settings, things like hyperlinks may appear in different places on the different computers. This effects usability tremendously. I have clinked on the wrong link a number of times because I knew right where what I wanted was, only it wasn’t there because the page was using flowing text and the browser was set differently. It also makes its difficult to help someone over the phone or e-mail - something I need to do often as an academic librarian. I think flowing text websites often lead to lower readability. There is a reason why books, newspapers, and other print media have columns. It makes it so you don’t have to scroll your eyes (and/or head) too much - something that I need to do way to much on a many flowing text sites. Ironically - in contrast to Nielsen’s assertion that one reason to not use fixed width web sites is because it may cause people to have to resize their browser in order to read them - I had to resize my browser to comfortably and efficiently read Nielsen’s Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005 flowing text web page.

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