On 4/23/14, 4:30 AM, Kagamin wrote:
On Tuesday, 22 April 2014 at 20:01:27 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
https://www.google.com/search?q=page%20width%20study#q=optimal+page+width+for+reading&safe=off
The first link say 100 characters per line. If 100 characters equal to
page width, then page width is the optimal line length.
Maybe Google personalized my search, but the first hit is
http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/13724/recommended-column-width-for-text-reading-digital-vs-printed
pointing to a study indicating 95 characters per line as optimal for
on-screen reading comprehension. The subjective preferences, however,
was biased toward smaller numbers.
The second link is http://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability which
points to a few studies concluding that 50-75 cpl (characters per line)
would be indicated for web design.
Third is
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7460041/whats-a-good-maximum-width-of-text-on-a-webpage
which quotes a really nice collection of numbers from Smashing Magazine
from popular websites, showing that 84% of the sites they looked at use
65-104 cpl.
It just struck me that Google's own search page that I'm looking at
right now, which I vaguely recall did not limit line lengths a few years
ago, is now using a 90 cpl limit. The page's right-hand side is a white
area.
Next is
http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/7-page-design/6-page-width-line-length.html,
which mentions 66 cpl as optimal from a physiological standpoint.
Next is http://socialtriggers.com/perfect-content-width/ which nicely
advocates smaller cpl at the top of the content (so people read the
essential message quickly) followed by 100 cpl.
And so on and so forth.
====
So I'd dlang.org to foster a behavior depending on the available real
estate, as follows:
* Cap cpl at e.g. 110 on very large screens.
* As the available width decreases, reduce cpl up to 60.
* If cpl with sidebar falls below 60, remove the sidebar and obtain e.g.
80 cpl.
* As the available width reduces further, allow reduction down to e.g.
35 cpl, and then require horizontal scrolling.
Andrei
