4 ms·

A "page" exists because paper exists. When you aren't using paper why would you break up your content into arbitrary fixed size increments, rather than using (

A "page" exists because paper exists. When you aren't using paper why would you break up your content into arbitrary fixed size increments, rather than using (say) "sections", which are the size of the content you put into them?

Tomte 7y ago
But people do print web sites.
pgcj_poster 7y ago
Right, you shouldn't do that. Instead, you should leave your content as-is when viewed on a screen but add a separate stylesheet that gets applied only when you print to format your content for the paper: eg. put footnotes at the bottom of the page. Unfortunately, features like this are largely missing from browsers.
- gboss 7y ago
  This is exactly what the print media query is for, which is supported in all modern browsers. https://joshuawinn.com/css-print-media-query/ https://joshuawinn.com/css-print-media-query/
coldtea 7y ago
For one, because you want to display existing, page-divided documents (e.g. books), and keep the same frame of reference (the page). Second, because you want to print -- in which case, your artifact ends up in a page. Third, because a screenful, even if dynamic (based on resolution, etc) is still a kind of a "page" (in HTML parlance, a "viewport"), and you might want to design to take advantage of what fits in one.
sjy 7y ago
Breaking up documents into arbitrary (but specified) fixed size increments is a useful way to refer to parts of a large document. Sure, it'd be better if everything was hyperlinked with semantic anchors, but until the trends identified in the article are reversed, that's not going to happen. Pagination is a good fallback option that everyone understands intuitively.
cnst 7y ago
It's actually all already standardised in CSS, since like a decade ago or so, yet no major web-browser has proper support for it. I've tried using it for my resume since may about 10 years ago, to make it possible to convert it to PDF with a standard browser, but to this day many of these features aren't fully supported. That's kinda the main selling point of software like Prince, which has implemented all of this ages ago, but it requires a licence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_(software) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_(software)
enriquto 7y ago
The partition into pages is not a crucial point of proper typesetting. If I understand the OP, the main complain is that you cannot properly typeset text with equations in a standard way that looks acceptable.

Tomte 7y ago

But people do print web sites.

pgcj_poster 7y ago

Right, you shouldn't do that. Instead, you should leave your content as-is when viewed on a screen but add a separate stylesheet that gets applied only when you print to format your content for the paper: eg. put footnotes at the bottom of the page. Unfortunately, features like this are largely missing from browsers.

gboss 7y ago
This is exactly what the print media query is for, which is supported in all modern browsers. https://joshuawinn.com/css-print-media-query/ https://joshuawinn.com/css-print-media-query/

coldtea 7y ago

For one, because you want to display existing, page-divided documents (e.g. books), and keep the same frame of reference (the page). Second, because you want to print -- in which case, your artifact ends up in a page. Third, because a screenful, even if dynamic (based on resolution, etc) is still a kind of a "page" (in HTML parlance, a "viewport"), and you might want to design to take advantage of what fits in one.

sjy 7y ago

Breaking up documents into arbitrary (but specified) fixed size increments is a useful way to refer to parts of a large document. Sure, it'd be better if everything was hyperlinked with semantic anchors, but until the trends identified in the article are reversed, that's not going to happen. Pagination is a good fallback option that everyone understands intuitively.

cnst 7y ago

It's actually all already standardised in CSS, since like a decade ago or so, yet no major web-browser has proper support for it. I've tried using it for my resume since may about 10 years ago, to make it possible to convert it to PDF with a standard browser, but to this day many of these features aren't fully supported. That's kinda the main selling point of software like Prince, which has implemented all of this ages ago, but it requires a licence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_(software) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_(software)

enriquto 7y ago

The partition into pages is not a crucial point of proper typesetting. If I understand the OP, the main complain is that you cannot properly typeset text with equations in a standard way that looks acceptable.