

Why do so many sites squeeze their content into one skinny column? - initlaunch

Usually there is nothing but empty space to the sides, and the font size is too small for comfort.  Is that supposed look professional?  Do  any designers out there hate this as much as me?  I always end up hitting CMD+ to increase the size until my whole screen is used.
======
RiderOfGiraffes
So many people don't understand that their browser window can be resized, so
if you have text that spans the entire width, there might be 30 or 40 words
per line, or even more. I've seen research that suggests reading is easiest
with around 10 words per line.

Net result is that text is easiest to read with a small number of words per
line, and the only way to ensure that cross-browsers, and for all window
sizings, is to create a single column.

Here's a page using the full width: <http://www.penzba.co.uk/Catastrophe/>

That's quite hard to read compared with these:

\+ <http://www.penzba.co.uk/Writings/TheTeleportingTurtle.html>

\+
[http://www.penzba.co.uk/Writings/TrappingATranscendental.htm...](http://www.penzba.co.uk/Writings/TrappingATranscendental.html)

\+
[http://www.penzba.co.uk/Writings/EnumeratingTheRationals.htm...](http://www.penzba.co.uk/Writings/EnumeratingTheRationals.html)

Personally I find those much, _much_ easier to read.

------
chc
A couple of reasons besides stylistic pretension (though that might be true in
some cases):

1\. Skinny columns of text are easier to scan quickly. This is the same reason
newspapers do it.

2\. When you're using a fixed-width layout, you're going to look skinny at
some screen resolutions and scroll horizontally on others. People are
generally more horrified by the latter than the former, so they go
conservative and target a fairly small screen size — in that case, 640px wide.
Very likely, the people behind the site have a smaller display than you do
(though a site targeting 640x480 is still probably aiming a few notches below
their own display).

~~~
rcfox
Solution: Don't do fixed-width layouts.

~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
Would you mind expanding on this? Suppose I have a body of text, and I want to
adhere to the guideline of having some 10 or 12 words per line.

How would you recommend I accomplish that?

~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
Hmm. Disappointing that you haven't replied.

------
byoung2
That's one of my pet peeves. Here's an example:
<http://www.creativecircle.com/Candidates.aspx>

