Re: WAI Website

Laurie Searle wrote:
> 
> Dear Editor,
> 
> The purpose of my email is to thank you for all of your great
> information on the WAI website and to make a recommendation for
> the presentation of text for your sighted readers.
> 
> My recommendation is that you shorten the line length.
> Appropriate line length for online reading is between 58-70
> characters (including spaces). Your line length is at about 92
> characters, which makes it a bit fatiguing to read online.
> I also recommend you add spaces between bullet
> points that have large blocks of text.

Hi Laurie,

We don't specify any line lengths (to my knowledge). Line
length is a function of the user's environment and depends
on the width of fonts, the width of the browser, etc.

I'm not sure that this is something we can control
in markup (in HTML) except maybe in the <pre> element,
which I don't believe we use.

Can you explain how we might ensure control over line
length in the user's environment? In the article you
cite, indeed it says:

  "Unfortunately, basic HTML text tags don't allow you 
   to control the width of your lines."

This is not a limitation of HTML but intentional: the
user is supposed to be able to control line width.

 - Ian
 
> There are many great resources that speak to this subject.
> One excellent website may be found at:
> http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol2/design_no4.htm
> 
> Regards,
> Laurie Searle
> laurie.searle@mindspring.com

-- 
Ian Jacobs (ij@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel:                     +1 718 260-9447

Received on Wednesday, 12 September 2001 18:00:59 UTC