alasdair.info

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Wide format blog

Last year I complained about websites that were designed to be 800 pixels wide. I wanted them to be wider. Well over the last year I have changed my opinion. Kind of. I did some google research and read that readig text on paper the ideal line length for fast reading is 3.5 inches, but that for text on screens it is closer to 7.3[1].

I have for a while been unhappy with the width of my blog. While the 800 total pixels wide is ok, I think the sidebar makes the text too narrow (about 455 pixels wide). So I have updated my blog to make it wider (in total 1048 pixels) to experiment. The area for blog postings is now 800 pixels wide. On my screen this apprears to be around 7.3 inches.

I still think 800 pixels is too narrow wide in a lot of cases (such as facebook), but for articles the text should probably be no longer than 800 pixels.

Alasdair

1. http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/nov02.asp


[ Tuesday 27th May 2008 Updated to remove very confusing typo pointed out by Joe Chacko. ]

2 comments:

Joe Chacko said...

I'm confused. 800 pixels is too narrow for a blog, but too wide for facebook? Or did you mean it was too narrow in both cases.

I definitely agree with the too narrow opinion. I get really frustrated that I can stretch my browser across 1900 pixels of screen but the page refuses to expand into the space available.

However, I like the fact that I can lay out my blog posts and trust they will look reasonably similar on most browsers.

Alasdair Nottingham said...

You are right this was a typo. I should have said narrow in this case, not wide. I have corrected the posting.