Hacker News

Favorites Setup
Comment by Tepix | original | Bug Blindness
[−]Tepix · 2026-08-30 Sun 10:09 UTC · link
I think your knowledge of CSS might be outdated.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 · 2026-08-30 Sun 10:34 UTC · link
>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.

[−]lmm · 2026-08-30 Sun 11:45 UTC · link
> 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.