Scrollbars Bad, Print Preview Good

I've just been looking at a very large web page (actually a W3C Recommendation). Thinking that I'd hate reading it on the screen I wondered how big it would be printed out. I went into Print Preview on Netscape - 51 pages altogether. Looking at the document in this mode I was struck by the fact that it had suddenly become much more readable - going full screen improved things further (my resolution was 1280x1024), going into two page mode improved the feeling of comfort at the expense of some legibility.

My conclusion was that, although I often complain about reading long texts on the screen and blame the physical screen itself, most of the problem is the scrollbar. It's more difficult to glance at the page and know where you were reading previously - the "real" pages of print preview make this process simpler. Also, on all the pages the numbering is at the bottom of the screen ("3 of 51") so I get a good feeling of how far I am through the document.

Final Word

On sending these thoughts round to a few friends, Graham Ashton pointed me to this quote from the Yale Style Guide on navigation

In paper documents this sense of "where you are" is a mixture of graphic and editorial organizational cues supplied by the graphic design of the book, the organization of the text, and the physical sensation of the book as an object. Electronic documents provide none of the physical cues we take for granted in assessing information.

Thanks to Graham for that.


History

Date Version Comments
May 10th, 2000 1.0 First version

Up: Ian Fairman's Writings
Copyright Ian Fairman 2000 - ifairman@yahoo.com
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