Literate Web Pages...Don't Use Fixed Page Widths

Don't use fixed page widths.

At a minimum, don't force repeated horizontal scrolling on readers with narrower browser windows.

Why Not

Practically, fixed-width pages can lead to repeated horizontal scrolling:

• Inflexible pages can't be stretched or shrunk to fit each reader's chosen browser window size. (Note that that is the window size, which is not necessarily the screen size.)
• When the page is wider than the browser window, the user has to scroll horizontally to see the content.
• If a column of text is also wider than the window width, the reader has to scroll back and forth for each line.

More generally, fixed-width pages don't follow the design of the web: web pages plus active user agents (browsers) that adapt the pages to the readers' preferences and needs.

Details

Don't directly set the width of a page; don't set the width of the body element.

If a column of text must have a fixed width or a minimum width, limit the width to the smallest reasonable browser window width, not just to the screen width you assume most readers have.

References

For more information, see: