'Stretched' text? Do you simply mean extra-wide lines?
Supposedly 8-12 words per line is easiest for eyes to scan.
I've never seen -- but often wished for -- a fluid-width layout that automatically scales its text so that the average line in the main content has 8-12 words on it. (I often do this manually with the browser's text-zoom options.)
stretched means extra-wide. I agree. I prefer reading NOT to be like watching a tennis match. The link I posted above seems to be such a fluid layout, but I haven't looked closely.
"I've never seen -- but often wished for -- a fluid-width layout that automatically scales its text so that the average line in the main content has 8-12 words on it."
That's easy to do with a fixed width in units of ems:
http://www.gunlaug.no/contents/wd_additions_14.html for some caveats and other notes, in particular you can not specify a font-size at all for the body element (if you do, then do the math yourself and not in the expression).
That's easy to do with a fixed width in units of ems
Almost, but not quite. That adjusts the width to match the font-size. I want the other way around: adjust the font-size to match the width. (If I make my browser window wider, the text should scale up.)
Currently, this would take Javascript -- either adaptively scaling the font until the desired words-per-line is reached, or calculating what font-size would mean the existing width, whatever it is, is ~35em.
Newegg does that with the menus and sidebar and it pisses me off. I find the text uncomfortably small, but when I fix it their Javascript jams it back to a small size.
With high-res screens and/or people with vision trouble, setting a particular font size is generally a bad idea.
Supposedly 8-12 words per line is easiest for eyes to scan.
I've never seen -- but often wished for -- a fluid-width layout that automatically scales its text so that the average line in the main content has 8-12 words on it. (I often do this manually with the browser's text-zoom options.)