4 ms·

It seems to wrap correctly in landscape mode.

Xirdus 1mo ago
Newspapers figured out wide text lines are awful for reading some 100 years ago. We're still waiting for web designers to catch up...
- RugnirViking 1mo ago
  Why are novels laid out the way they are? It's almost as though its not as simple as "bad for reading" but rather a feature of the content. imo it highly depends on the medium. If your content is packed with distracting ads, flashing banners, other unrelated text from other stories, then its helpful to make the columns narrow to help you scan. If you have a more focused experience around one passage of text, wider text lets you fit more on the page and make better use of paragraph breaks and subheadings
  - pc86 1mo ago
    Are a lot of novels laid out with 24-30" lines of text?
  - Xirdus 1mo ago
    Video games are routinely stomping over all known rules of good user interface in the name of art. And that's okay because it's a leisure activity, and efficiency and comfort is not the goal. I suspect the same thing is true of novels - making the text physically easier to read wouldn't make the story emotionally easier to enjoy, so they intentionally choose a suboptimal text layout for aesthetic reasons. The only two types of books I can think of that are routinely read for purposes other than leisure - dictionaries and the Bible - are usually printed in multi-column layout from what I've seen.
  - NuclearPM 1mo ago
    Starting sentences with “It's almost as though/if” is very annoying.
  - hluska 1mo ago
    Cost has always been a major factor in publishing fiction. 25% fewer words per line may boost comprehension by $x% but definitely increases cost by 25%. When markets are as price sensitive as leisure, cost is a big factor in the decision. Books don’t sell on a price per printed page basis. Mainstream publishers with existing distribution contracts are especially sensitive because of print runs. When we published a print magazine we optimized heavily to save 1% on printing costs. 25% would have been suicide. And indie magazine buyers are traditionally a lot more price flexible than mainstream book buyers.
- rat9988 1mo ago
  *Hacker news web designers. Many websites already have a limited text width.
- kccqzy 1mo ago
  Old newspapers have overly narrow columns that make both full justification and hyphenation ugly. I don’t think we should be looking at 100-year old newspapers for inspiration. Maybe look at them and see how far we’ve come and how much improvement we have in modern printed matter. Instead we should look at modern books. Without paying good money to use tools like InDesign, just use LaTeX with microtype together with the default margins. You will get the ideal width for text lines (about 60 to 80 characters), full justification with minimal hyphenation.
  - Xirdus 1mo ago
    The problem with your argument is that if you look at 100 year old books and modern newspapers, you arrive at exactly the opposite conclusion - it seems we ditched full width text a long time ago and fully switched to narrow columns, and it must've been for a reason!
- NoMoreNicksLeft 1mo ago
  Narrow columns leave more room for ads. Ads that aren't even slightly aligned with products you're interested in.
  - Xirdus 1mo ago
    Now explain dictionaries.
    - gffrd 1mo ago
      Scanability and limitations of layout technology from 100 years ago.
      - Xirdus 1mo ago
        I wonder what you'll come up with for 21st century reprints of the Bible. Please don't say tradition.
        gffrd 1mo ago
        That's easy. The columns have to be narrow enough that you can still read a full column of scripture while your éclair rests on the other half of the page. That's why a full-spread layout is referred to a "qautréclair."
    - NoMoreNicksLeft 1mo ago
      A pre-internet technology that needs more ads for products you're not even slightly interested in.
    - toast0 1mo ago
      Dictionaries in columns statistically reduce white space and thus reduce the page count. Especially for the definitions that are very short, for example when they only reference a more preferred spelling or a more prominent word that has the exact meaning.
      - 1mo ago
- gffrd 1mo ago
  Narrow columns allow you to maximize the amount of stories that can be shown on the front page. Good for scanning, OK for reading. This is a totally context-dependent decision.
stronglikedan 1mo ago
Oh, so it works fine for masochists? That's good to know.

Newspapers figured out wide text lines are awful for reading some 100 years ago. We're still waiting for web designers to catch up...

RugnirViking 1mo ago
Why are novels laid out the way they are? It's almost as though its not as simple as "bad for reading" but rather a feature of the content. imo it highly depends on the medium. If your content is packed with distracting ads, flashing banners, other unrelated text from other stories, then its helpful to make the columns narrow to help you scan. If you have a more focused experience around one passage of text, wider text lets you fit more on the page and make better use of paragraph breaks and subheadings
- pc86 1mo ago
  Are a lot of novels laid out with 24-30" lines of text?
- Xirdus 1mo ago
  Video games are routinely stomping over all known rules of good user interface in the name of art. And that's okay because it's a leisure activity, and efficiency and comfort is not the goal. I suspect the same thing is true of novels - making the text physically easier to read wouldn't make the story emotionally easier to enjoy, so they intentionally choose a suboptimal text layout for aesthetic reasons. The only two types of books I can think of that are routinely read for purposes other than leisure - dictionaries and the Bible - are usually printed in multi-column layout from what I've seen.
- NuclearPM 1mo ago
  Starting sentences with “It's almost as though/if” is very annoying.
- hluska 1mo ago
  Cost has always been a major factor in publishing fiction. 25% fewer words per line may boost comprehension by $x% but definitely increases cost by 25%. When markets are as price sensitive as leisure, cost is a big factor in the decision. Books don’t sell on a price per printed page basis. Mainstream publishers with existing distribution contracts are especially sensitive because of print runs. When we published a print magazine we optimized heavily to save 1% on printing costs. 25% would have been suicide. And indie magazine buyers are traditionally a lot more price flexible than mainstream book buyers.
rat9988 1mo ago
*Hacker news web designers. Many websites already have a limited text width.
kccqzy 1mo ago
Old newspapers have overly narrow columns that make both full justification and hyphenation ugly. I don’t think we should be looking at 100-year old newspapers for inspiration. Maybe look at them and see how far we’ve come and how much improvement we have in modern printed matter. Instead we should look at modern books. Without paying good money to use tools like InDesign, just use LaTeX with microtype together with the default margins. You will get the ideal width for text lines (about 60 to 80 characters), full justification with minimal hyphenation.
- Xirdus 1mo ago
  The problem with your argument is that if you look at 100 year old books and modern newspapers, you arrive at exactly the opposite conclusion - it seems we ditched full width text a long time ago and fully switched to narrow columns, and it must've been for a reason!
NoMoreNicksLeft 1mo ago
Narrow columns leave more room for ads. Ads that aren't even slightly aligned with products you're interested in.
- Xirdus 1mo ago
  Now explain dictionaries.
  - gffrd 1mo ago
    Scanability and limitations of layout technology from 100 years ago.
    - Xirdus 1mo ago
      I wonder what you'll come up with for 21st century reprints of the Bible. Please don't say tradition.
      - gffrd 1mo ago
        That's easy. The columns have to be narrow enough that you can still read a full column of scripture while your éclair rests on the other half of the page. That's why a full-spread layout is referred to a "qautréclair."
  - NoMoreNicksLeft 1mo ago
    A pre-internet technology that needs more ads for products you're not even slightly interested in.
  - toast0 1mo ago
    Dictionaries in columns statistically reduce white space and thus reduce the page count. Especially for the definitions that are very short, for example when they only reference a more preferred spelling or a more prominent word that has the exact meaning.
    - 1mo ago
gffrd 1mo ago
Narrow columns allow you to maximize the amount of stories that can be shown on the front page. Good for scanning, OK for reading. This is a totally context-dependent decision.

stronglikedan 1mo ago

Oh, so it works fine for masochists? That's good to know.