Fitting Sentence Text to the Page

[BABYLOCK]

Just tossing this out for discussion - not a critic of a story - but of the construction or formatting of the sentencing/text.

When reading some of these stories on a wide screen monitor (like my 27 inch) I find an increasing amount of overrun off screen.

I don't know how someone reads these things on a tablet or even a cell phone (when distracted driving I might add LOL ) !

If the story text is not double spaced it is hard for me (I am 79 with glasses) to wrap my vision around to the next line.

Example:
When the moon comes over the mountain - the darken sky lightens a degree or two creating romantic beams of twilight to embrace - yet again furthering the love making that the couple in this story have come to represent. Continuing in this quest feverish passions are exposed and despite the cool air warm embraces are bought out in full enlightenment of the love between these two. Then a shot rang out - Snoopy left the roof of his dog house to investigate finding Peter Rabbit about to be road kill for hovering buzzards above. Who the hell concocts a story and line like this - ME said the author to make a point on how the sentencing text is presented and spaced out to fit.  

So redoing to a different format - - -

When the moon comes over the mountain - the darken sky lightens a degree or two creating romantic beams of twilight to embrace.

Yet again furthering the love making that the couple in this story have come to represent.

Continuing in this quest feverish passions are exposed and despite the cool air warm embraces are brought out in full enlightenment

of the love between these two.

Then a shot rang out - Snoopy left the roof of his dog house to investigate finding Peter Rabbit about to be road kill for the hovering buzzards above.

Who the hell concocts a story and line like this - ME said the author to make a point on how sentencing text is presented and spaced out to fit.


For me that makes things easier to read (and I would suppose others too).

Another thing when I took typing (back in '58) you only had the width of the 8.5 x 11 inch paper stock to type a line at a time.

With the typewriter with only one font and xx characters of text before having to CARET (carriage return) and start a new line.

What you were typing copying was presented in uniform space and more eye appealing.

None of the wrapping around the right margin and then some and even then some again !


Does this have any merit -or- am I just some ole fogy in need of wide-screen stereo-scope glasses ?

Frequently I will take a story posted here and di-bi sect it to reading as if I was it were only those xx

characters wide on a page - and then watch me speed read ! 

I would imagine that tablet users (in landscape mode) would like this too - but as for the cell phones -

forget it keep your eyes on the road !


Here comes those men in the white coats and shepherds crook to yank me off my soap box !

So long farewell - maybe like Arnold I will be back !

[Cindy]

Does a larger font help? I post mine in 14 pt, bold to make it readable.

[BABYLOCK]

Does a larger font help? I post mine in 14 pt, bold to make it readable.

Yes most definitely !

I don't know how it affects those reading on a tablet (kindle) except for causing more finger movement to the next page.

Structuring the width to half or 2/3rds the width of the webpage does make for more rapid reading with less strain.

With this  present webpage setup it is possible to have two sentences or even a partial third on one line before going to

the next sentence.

I guess that I am spoiled by reading books with a regime of staying within the page for the next sentence.

This like what one would read at MS WORD -or- as an alternative I use is copying to NOTEPAD and shrink the margins to

accomplish ease of reading objective - and also I can change the font too.


Cindy I do like the larger 14pt font and the shaded grey print - Thank You !


I don't care so much for Bobbi1111 (while his stories are great) he needs to copy your 14pt font format and ditch the 

"PINK" explosion of color print.

These are my observations comments and perhaps unwelcomed critic - but it is me the way I see things.

---

Notice in the my previous post the structure of the post - using a left rigid margin and lots of empty space to the right.

Just an example of what I am referring to.

If you read some of the stories at FictionMania the content is extreme left rigid margin and while single line spacing

makes for very rapid speed reading.

[afp]

Babylock, I agree, am all for making things easier to read. Better margins, line spacing, simple fonts and solid colours like Cindy’s.

I got eye issues too, reading on a small (phone/tablet etc.) screen is a nightmare trying to zoom and moving around sometimes loss of where you’re at on the page. On a big screen it helps, but as you say if you maximise the page the text flows over so your looking too far across for the eyes to flow back quickly or smoothly to the next line.

[sgbf]

Well, for me, I find it quicker and easier to read the original paragraph without all the newlines  (carriage return and line feeds). My eyes have less far to travel.

I believe most web browsers allow you to increase the font size by using ctrl-+. This way the paragraph is reformatted without having to zoom in and move right and left. And you don't have to rely on the font size chosen by the poster.

[afp]

Ah yes, I had forgot about ctrl-+ does work great, you can keep the window as narrow or board as you like and read without eyes getting lost.

Most browsers also allow you to override the settings provided by the author of the page by going into the browsers “preferences” then “general” then “languages and appearance” then “fonts and colors” (choose what works best for you including size) then “advanced”, there should be a box to tick or untick to override either yours or the providers font. Exact steps, of course, depend on what what browser or device you use, so you will have to do some experimenting.