I always enjoy Joel on Software. One of the reasons I enjoy it has nothing to do with content - I love the layout. It requires very little eye strain. The serif fonts allow the eye to recognize shapes of familiar words. More importantly, the article text forms a column that is narrow. The narrow column of text surrounded by blocks of whitespace keep the eye from being overwhelmed, and the reader is able to stay focused.

Since Nick Fink was recently quoted in CityDesk News, we learn that Joel's format is a trade secret of the Print profession:

Nick Finck: “There is an unspoken rule in print which states that text should not exceed four inches in width on a page. Any text less than four inches is more readable than any text over four inches — the reader's whiplash will speak for itself.”

[CityDesk News]

 

How to do it: (well, one way to do it, there are many):

<div style="width: 4in;">There is an unspoken rule in print which states that text should not exceed four inches in width on a page. Any text less than four inches is more readable than any text over four inches — the reader's whiplash will speak for itself.</div>

11:36:24 PM  comment [] | Categories: 80-20 Web Development, Html 1-A| Topics: CSS HTML