4 ms·

Interesting topic, and funny that I personally consider the text width and font size of danluu’s blog to be a “bug”. It is well known that we can read faster wi

by meling 1mo ago

Interesting topic, and funny that I personally consider the text width and font size of danluu’s blog to be a “bug”. It is well known that we can read faster with narrower text columns (remember newspaper columns when they were printed on paper). This is why I always read this particular blog with Apple’s Reader mode, which renders the text using larger font and narrower width.

watermelon0 1mo ago
There is no CSS configuration for text/font on the website, so it's using browser defaults. Seems like reader mode is needed due to bad defaults.
- lelanthran 1mo ago
  That's a cop out in this specific instance: he knows the defaults are a bug, he can change it with maybe 2x lines of CSS, but he is blind to the fact that it's a bug. After all, he is complaining about the defaults in other software, but he is blind to the defaults he presents the user.
  - lmm 1mo ago
    There is no way to specify a good size in CSS - a size that looks good on current computers will be too big on old computers, and a size that looks good on old computers looks too small on current ones. Browsers and users are the ones who can fix this.
    - Tepix 1mo ago
      I think your knowledge of CSS might be outdated. What's wrong with the following CSS snippet for example? body { max-width: 70ch; /* Limits the text column to a comfortable reading width */ margin: 0 auto; /* Centers the text column on large screens */ padding: 1.5rem; /* Prevents text from touching the edges on small/mobile screens */ line-height: 1.6; /* Gives the lines room to breathe */ } As for font size, you can use font-size: 1rem; to respect the browser's default font size.
      - mrob 1mo ago
        >What's wrong with the following CSS snippet The problem is you're imposing your own idiosyncratic preferences on strangers. Your "improvements" cost valuable screen space. I paid good money for my screen space and I don't appreciate designers unilaterally wasting it because they personally think it looks better. The decision of how much (if any) space to spend on padding should be made by the user.
        mixmastamyk 1mo ago
        Learn how to resize windows, multitasking, tiling, etc. I prefer to have one monitor in portrait but understand many don’t have or not able.
        mrob 1mo ago
        Useful things to know, but how do they undo a designer wasting my screen space? If you're going to tell me to learn something, it should be CSS. At least Firefox can still be configured to follow its traditional role as "user agent" and allow me to override the bad decisions of designers, by setting toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets and editing chrome/userContent.css . But it would be convenient if more people used the default CSS like danluu.com .
        mixmastamyk 1mo ago
        Not sure, as I don't have any wasted screen space, due to the techniques mentioned above. On really bad sites I try reader view first, View/Page Style/No Style (on Firefox) second, and if that doesn't work I close the tab. Pretty rare though.
        Tepix 1mo ago
        A website should be readable, even if the browser is set to fullscreen. It could be that the user is on a kiosk system where she can't resize the window or doesn't want to, just to improve legibility.
        1mo ago
crabbone 1mo ago
I think this is intentional? I use Firefox reader, but the same idea. I actually prefer it this way (except I don't like that the reader doesn't support Vi/Emacs navigation...) For content that is just text, I prefer that the author keeps the styling to the minimum. It makes it easier to do it the way I want it client-side.
chrisjj 1mo ago
> It is well known that we can read faster with narrower text Speak for yourself. Font size is client setting, and there's where lies any bug.
nchmy 1mo ago
Indeed. It is unreadable without a Reader mode.
- ansgri 1mo ago
  also reader on ios interprets it wrong as it picks up the first heading as the article’s title, and that makes me think that it could skip some content as it’s prone to do, so back to poorly readable layout I go.

by meling 1mo ago

watermelon0 1mo ago

There is no CSS configuration for text/font on the website, so it's using browser defaults. Seems like reader mode is needed due to bad defaults.

lelanthran 1mo ago
That's a cop out in this specific instance: he knows the defaults are a bug, he can change it with maybe 2x lines of CSS, but he is blind to the fact that it's a bug. After all, he is complaining about the defaults in other software, but he is blind to the defaults he presents the user.
- lmm 1mo ago
  There is no way to specify a good size in CSS - a size that looks good on current computers will be too big on old computers, and a size that looks good on old computers looks too small on current ones. Browsers and users are the ones who can fix this.
  - Tepix 1mo ago
    I think your knowledge of CSS might be outdated. What's wrong with the following CSS snippet for example? body { max-width: 70ch; /* Limits the text column to a comfortable reading width */ margin: 0 auto; /* Centers the text column on large screens */ padding: 1.5rem; /* Prevents text from touching the edges on small/mobile screens */ line-height: 1.6; /* Gives the lines room to breathe */ } As for font size, you can use font-size: 1rem; to respect the browser's default font size.
    - mrob 1mo ago
      >What's wrong with the following CSS snippet The problem is you're imposing your own idiosyncratic preferences on strangers. Your "improvements" cost valuable screen space. I paid good money for my screen space and I don't appreciate designers unilaterally wasting it because they personally think it looks better. The decision of how much (if any) space to spend on padding should be made by the user.
      - mixmastamyk 1mo ago
        Learn how to resize windows, multitasking, tiling, etc. I prefer to have one monitor in portrait but understand many don’t have or not able.
        mrob 1mo ago
        Useful things to know, but how do they undo a designer wasting my screen space? If you're going to tell me to learn something, it should be CSS. At least Firefox can still be configured to follow its traditional role as "user agent" and allow me to override the bad decisions of designers, by setting toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets and editing chrome/userContent.css . But it would be convenient if more people used the default CSS like danluu.com .
        mixmastamyk 1mo ago
        Not sure, as I don't have any wasted screen space, due to the techniques mentioned above. On really bad sites I try reader view first, View/Page Style/No Style (on Firefox) second, and if that doesn't work I close the tab. Pretty rare though.
        Tepix 1mo ago
        A website should be readable, even if the browser is set to fullscreen. It could be that the user is on a kiosk system where she can't resize the window or doesn't want to, just to improve legibility.
      - 1mo ago

crabbone 1mo ago

I think this is intentional? I use Firefox reader, but the same idea. I actually prefer it this way (except I don't like that the reader doesn't support Vi/Emacs navigation...) For content that is just text, I prefer that the author keeps the styling to the minimum. It makes it easier to do it the way I want it client-side.

chrisjj 1mo ago

> It is well known that we can read faster with narrower text Speak for yourself. Font size is client setting, and there's where lies any bug.

nchmy 1mo ago

Indeed. It is unreadable without a Reader mode.

ansgri 1mo ago
also reader on ios interprets it wrong as it picks up the first heading as the article’s title, and that makes me think that it could skip some content as it’s prone to do, so back to poorly readable layout I go.