[WEB4LIB] Re: Pixel sizes for web pages

[Walt Howe]

At 03:49 AM 19-08-99 -0700, Leonard Will wrote, in part:
>I use a 17" monitor at 1152 x 864 pixels, and I find it irritating to
>see pages that occupy the middle half of my screen with wide blank
>margins on either side, They often have text forced into narrow columns,
>requiring much more vertical scrolling than would be necessary if HTML
>had been used properly.

I must counter your argument. I find it very irritating to be forced to
read wide columns of text that scroll across the full width of the screen.
I deliberately design text oriented pages to column widths of 400 pixels or
so for best readablilty. For readability, I would much rather scroll
vertically than have to scan my eyes back and forth horizontally. As any
speed reader will tell you, the best laid out text for reading allows the
eye to scroll vertically without much lateral motion.

Good design will break up pages so that little vertical scrolling is
required anyway, but if I must present a long text document on one page, I
will keep the columns at a readable width.



Walt Howe <walthowe at delphi.com>
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