December 18, 2003

Liquid vs. Fixed

More on fixed widths from clagnut. Plus a new term I wasn't aware of, concertina padding.
A way to mitigate long lines and keep a purely liquid layout is to use ëconcertina paddingí. Every width, padding and margin is set as a percentage of the window width. So as the browser is made wider, the white space increases thus limiting the spread of the text. This technique also means that one can design using a grid in such a way that each page element remains in correct proportion to the others. Clagnut itself is an example of concertina padding in action.
Doug has a nice response up about going fixed, and then back to liquid. It's interesting to see this debate rear it's UGLY head again. I myself think that there is no single best way and that your design should depend upon your needs, audience and requirements. Both are good, both have strengths, both have weaknesses.
Post Info

Tagged As CSS, Coding, Design, Strategy, UI Design, Usability

Comments are Open (0)

Posted at 12:22 PM

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

Search
Comments on this post
Categories
Info
Tony Stephens
Copyright © 1995-2005
Site Version:
10
Licensed:
Creative Commons
Validate:
XHTML, CSS, 508, RSS
Subscribe
Blog-Fu, Link-Fu