3 ms·

When reading text, I believe the opposite to be true. It's why newspapers use relatively narrow columns of text despite having a lot of width to work with. It's

by Zak 9y ago

When reading text, I believe the opposite to be true. It's why newspapers use relatively narrow columns of text despite having a lot of width to work with. It's much easier to keep my place and process information if I don't have to move my eyes much horizontally. When it comes to scanning for unexpected information, you may be right. A high aspect ratio might be better suited for gaming, at least with games where a significant element is scanning the screen for information and responding to it quickly. One more data point to throw in is that according to Wikipedia, the human field of view is approximately 1.5:1. That suggests to me that 1.5:1 is a good aspect ratio for a general-purpose display. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_eye#Field_of_view https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_eye#Field_of_view

ropeadopepope 9y ago
The problem with both yours and the parent's assertion is context. Newspapers are easy to move so the portion you're reading is in your field of view. Your monitor isn't and it's used for much more than just reading static text. 1.5:1 may be a good reading aspect ratio, but if you need multiple things with that aspect ratio open and on the screen at the same time then you need a wider screen. edit: I just realized a 3:2 screen is basically two 1.5:1 "areas". There are some laptops that have a 3:2 screen mentioned in other places in this thread. I do wish I had a better way of splitting content into readable newspaper style columns, though. Modern web design is pretty antagonistic toward this end. There was a MacOS app that used to do this[0], but it hasn't been updated in years and there isn't an alternative for windows. [0]: http://amarsagoo.info/tofu/ http://amarsagoo.info/tofu/
- WorldMaker 9y ago
  I wish more websites used it as a design choice instead of margins/padding. CSS actually has reasonably good support for it: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_Columns/Using_multi-column_layouts https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_Columns... (Though best supported by Firefox and Edge, with interesting bugs in Chrome and Safari I've seen.) With one major flaw in that -ms-scroll-translation still hasn't made it out of being just an IE 10 suggestion (that Edge still supports and no one else) and into the specs and is a pain to polyfill, but a relatively key ergonomic need: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh973361(v=vs.85).aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh973361(v=vs.85).a... Windows 8 tried to encourage horizontal scrolling, multi-column design in applications and websites, so Microsoft put some good work into the ergonomics of it, and I appreciated they tried and am still somewhat sad they failed. (I'm proud that my blog uses a multi-column layout for text at wide widths, but given it is my blog I can do weird design craziness like that that amuses/interests me and not worry about confusing potential visitors.)
- Zak 9y ago
  3:2 is one 1.5:1 area. It's two 1.5:2, or 3:4 areas. I don't find 3:2 to be an especially good aspect ratio for fullscreen text. It's still either too wide or too short, but 3:4 is pretty good, so two columns on 3:2 is two pretty good text areas on a 12-15" diagonal screen. It's also one pretty good text area and some UI, ads, etc... on either side. I should note that physical size is a major constraint here. On a laptop, I want a column of text to be about 4-6" (10-15cm) wide. A desktop screen that's usually farther away can be a bit wider, maybe 8-10" (20-25cm). Having those columns be very tall is fine. I've been using a 24" 9:16 display for having documentation up while coding lately.

by Zak 9y ago

ropeadopepope 9y ago

The problem with both yours and the parent's assertion is context. Newspapers are easy to move so the portion you're reading is in your field of view. Your monitor isn't and it's used for much more than just reading static text. 1.5:1 may be a good reading aspect ratio, but if you need multiple things with that aspect ratio open and on the screen at the same time then you need a wider screen. edit: I just realized a 3:2 screen is basically two 1.5:1 "areas". There are some laptops that have a 3:2 screen mentioned in other places in this thread. I do wish I had a better way of splitting content into readable newspaper style columns, though. Modern web design is pretty antagonistic toward this end. There was a MacOS app that used to do this[0], but it hasn't been updated in years and there isn't an alternative for windows. [0]: http://amarsagoo.info/tofu/ http://amarsagoo.info/tofu/

WorldMaker 9y ago
I wish more websites used it as a design choice instead of margins/padding. CSS actually has reasonably good support for it: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_Columns/Using_multi-column_layouts https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_Columns... (Though best supported by Firefox and Edge, with interesting bugs in Chrome and Safari I've seen.) With one major flaw in that -ms-scroll-translation still hasn't made it out of being just an IE 10 suggestion (that Edge still supports and no one else) and into the specs and is a pain to polyfill, but a relatively key ergonomic need: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh973361(v=vs.85).aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh973361(v=vs.85).a... Windows 8 tried to encourage horizontal scrolling, multi-column design in applications and websites, so Microsoft put some good work into the ergonomics of it, and I appreciated they tried and am still somewhat sad they failed. (I'm proud that my blog uses a multi-column layout for text at wide widths, but given it is my blog I can do weird design craziness like that that amuses/interests me and not worry about confusing potential visitors.)
Zak 9y ago
3:2 is one 1.5:1 area. It's two 1.5:2, or 3:4 areas. I don't find 3:2 to be an especially good aspect ratio for fullscreen text. It's still either too wide or too short, but 3:4 is pretty good, so two columns on 3:2 is two pretty good text areas on a 12-15" diagonal screen. It's also one pretty good text area and some UI, ads, etc... on either side. I should note that physical size is a major constraint here. On a laptop, I want a column of text to be about 4-6" (10-15cm) wide. A desktop screen that's usually farther away can be a bit wider, maybe 8-10" (20-25cm). Having those columns be very tall is fine. I've been using a 24" 9:16 display for having documentation up while coding lately.