Writing for the web

[Jona Lendering]

If I read a text printed in a book, the length of the sections is not a great matter to me. However, if I read a text on the screen of my computer, I prefer shorter sections. Am I the only one? Your comments are appreciated (I may be able to make the articles at [url:3dn799n0]http://www.livius.org[/url] more accessible).

[Praefectusclassis]

Totally agree. I sort of remember that there's a 'rule' that texts on the web shouldn't be more than 1000 words/section

[Sean Manning]

I agree. Reading more than a few thousand words on one page online gets hard on the eyes and feels strange. I think its partly because of the so-so resolution of monitors and partly psychological.

[Salvianus]

Absolutely. I believe that paragraphs in particular should be much shorter, longer articles are fine, but are improved by clear headings for sub-sections, ideally with an anchor-linked topic index.

I've looked into web design to help dyslexics and the partially sighted. Sans serif fonts like Arial are generally better on screen (hence becoming pretty standard), but it does vary, so if you use default font settings the user can choose their own preferred font with their browser. If you use style sheets, you can also assign a backup setting which only kicks in if they haven't. There's a bunch of other stuff like that I can pass on if it would be useful.

[Jona Lendering]

There's a bunch of other stuff like that I can pass on if it would be useful.

Yes, that will be appreciated. I will move the site to a Content Management System, and I can need all advise.

[Epictetus]

Yes, I agree as well.

I think that others have noticed this seemingly-common preference. If one compares the length of paragraphs at the CNN site and a printed paper, for instance, I think CNN uses much shorter paragrapsh. Not only are whole sections shorter, but even individual paragraphs.

[Salvianus]

Cool. According to my researches, ideas include:

As well as enabling user font preference, increasing the default spacing between lines of text is often helpful.

Use a line spacing between paragraphs,

Italics should be avoided,

Separate, rather than embed links in text,

General consistency in layout improves predictability,


Left alined rather than justified text,

Columns should be fairly narrow, perhaps 70-80 characters wide or less,

Use bullet points and text boxes to separate ideas and simplify passages,

Pictures are still useful to break up text and should ideally illustrate the adjacent text,


Avoid using background images behind text,

Off-white backgrounds e.g. BGCOLOR="#FFFFE5" are usually better than bright white,

Ensure good contrast between the colour of the background and that of text,


For text-to-speech software:

Either avoid frames, or provide a no-frames version,

Give pictures a relevant name with the 'alt' tag,

Use full stops after headings to help the programs recognise the separation

Add an extra space plus semi-colons, commas or full stops after bullet points

Avoid words in all capital letters



I'm planning to utilise these ideas myself when we do a full re-fit on comitatus.net

Good luck Jona

[Jona Lendering]

Thanks!