Multi-column text layouts – a good fit for the Web?

4 points by tszyn 11 years ago | 3 comments

I recently came across PubMed's "PubReader view":

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3163673/?report=reader

Presenting paginated content in a multi-column layout has its advantages. First and foremost, it's better adapted to widescreen displays -- instead of a narrow column of text surrounded by huge margins on both sides, the entire window area is filled with text, allowing the reader to see much more content without scrolling. The user can maximize the browser window to fully utilize the screen area (the 2-column layout then becomes a 3-column layout).

One disadvantage is that you can no longer Ctrl+F to find a keyword within the article. The page has to provide its own search functionality. This is of course not an inherent problem and could be solved with proper browser support.

Do you think multi-column, paginated text has a future for general Web content (outside of ebook readers etc.)?

anigbrowl 11 years ago |

Yes. I have been using that thing too and love it, to the point that I have been contemplating learning how to make it into a Chrome extension or something (which is a bit of a hurdle - never had any interest in web programming and so I have only a cursory familiarity with the DOM). It's a very welcome alternative to the tablet-centric design trends of the last few years.

ivansavz 11 years ago |

I like the layout mainly because it helps to put more words on a page thus improving the "scrolling fatigue" by a factor of two.

Also narrow, newspaper-like columns are much easier to read.

However, quickly scrolling some content into view becomes impossible, which is kind of a dealbreaker for me.

tszyn 11 years ago | |

You can use the arrow keys to go to the next page, though, which is pretty fast.