Read my media column
[Keyword: online journalism, citizen journalism, blogging]. I’ve been writing a column about the media for the past five weeks on new website TheStirrer.com. I have been trying to persuade them to not centre-align text, but they seem attached to it. You may want to read it (and email them asking them to change the alignment!)…
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Reading a webpage is NOT the same as reading a bookpage. Haveing left alligned text doesn’t give the eye reference point on a page.Reading left to right on a screen just ain’t the same as withe a printed page. Thus centred is nice.That is why and that is what it is!
AND ANOTHER THING! I find it really hard to read serif typefaces on the web. Sans serif (and verdana in particular) is much gentler on the eye.
I agree that reading online is a different experience, and this means print rules don’t always apply. But all the same, I find it difficult to read centred text, as the eye has to shift where it begins each new line. I’ve not read any research that suggests centred text works any better online.