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.
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.
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.
I think your knowledge of CSS might be outdated.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 */
}
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.
> What's wrong with the following CSS snippet for example?
It doesn't achieve a reasonable readable font size which was presumably the goal. Your padding won't be the right size for all screens either. (And personally I hate excessive line height).
> respect the browser's default font size
The browser's defaults are also bad. But they shouldn't be. The browser is in a position to actually fix this; the webdev isn't.
Seems like reader mode is needed due to bad defaults.
After all, he is complaining about the defaults in other software, but he is blind to the defaults he presents the user.
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.
It doesn't achieve a reasonable readable font size which was presumably the goal. Your padding won't be the right size for all screens either. (And personally I hate excessive line height).
> respect the browser's default font size
The browser's defaults are also bad. But they shouldn't be. The browser is in a position to actually fix this; the webdev isn't.
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.
Speak for yourself.
Font size is client setting, and there's where lies any bug.