[IxDA Discuss] UI design for digital books with extensive footnotes

[Dan Saffer]

On Aug 2, 2006, at 11:11 AM, Jack Moffett wrote:

> My reasoning is as follows:
> 1. There is more screen width than height. Therefore it may make more
> sense to split it into left and right panes.
> 2. Full screen width is two wide for ideal line lengths, so making
> two narrower columns will improve readability.
> 3. The users will likely want to read both the main content and the
> commentary at the same time. Jennifer's post arrived as I'm typing
> this, and I see she covered my point here. It would be easier to
> track left to right.

I can see your reasoning here, w/r/t screen width v. height. Why then  
isn't this the standard instead of left/right panes? A holdover from  
print?

Dan