Redesign of dlang.org

Andrei Alexandrescu via Digitalmars-d digitalmars-d at puremagic.com
Wed Apr 23 09:13:38 PDT 2014


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



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