Why do people browse the web in portrait mode??

[thecapsaicinkid]

I'm guessing it's logical to assume people would want to view a 'page' in a portrait view but having to pinch and zoom seems much less desirable than viewing the whole width and scrolling to read.

Even on a smaller 4.3" HD smartphone where text is generally pretty small unzoomed landscape, I still think it's preferable. On a 7" plus tablet, why use portrait? This is pretty damn odd to me.

 

[Nothinman]

The two most likely reasons I can think of are because people read top to bottom so having more vertical space makes more sense and tablets and phones are easier to hold with 1 hand in portrait.

 

[podspi]

The two most likely reasons I can think of are because people read top to bottom so having more vertical space makes more sense and tablets and phones are easier to hold with 1 hand in portrait.

At least for me, I feel like it's much easier to hold a tablet in a portrait configuration. There is a reason books are shaped that way.

 

[Chiropteran]

I don't know why most people do, I prefer to browse in landscape.

The two most likely reasons I can think of are because people read top to bottom so having more vertical space makes more sense and tablets and phones are easier to hold with 1 hand in portrait.

I agree with the second reason, it is a little easier to hold the phone in portrait. But as far as the first reason, you only gain vertical space at the cost of losing horizontal space. Overall the total space for reading is the same or worse.

Also, the majority of images and screensshots are landscape format, it's just easier to leave the phone in one orientation rather than switch back and forth, for me.

 

[corkyg]

Landscape mode is good if you have a widescreen display. I browse in portrait mode because I adjust font size, etc. to just fill my 4:3 screen edge to edge, and I only need to scroll vertically. I read from top down, and thus it suits me. I really dislike having to scroll horizontally.

Bottom line - it's a personal choice sometimes involving many other factors such as vision impairment, glasses, lighting, and type of browsing. And, it also seems that the question only applies to smart phones, and not computers. If that is the specific question, it should so state, and then I would answer differently - landscape!

 

[Red Storm]

There's much less scrolling involved when reading text in portrait view.

 

[ChronoReverse]

It's much easier to scan a semi-narrow (but not too narrow) column of text as opposed to a wide column.

The other thing is ergonomics. Holding a phone in portrait is the obvious one but I find scrolling is also more comfortable when there's a larger area to drag up and down. Many browsers leave the statusbar visible as well and while it's not really noticeable in portrait, a significantly larger portion of the screen is wasted in landscape (I tend to go to fullscreen if available).


For some things I do switch to landscape (like full size websites) to take advantage of the 1280 pixels on my phone but usually portrait is very good.

 

[Deeko]

Without doing any zooming...this is this thread in portrait:

and this is it in landscape:

Not to mention what others said about being easier to hold, particularly with one hand.

 

[cheezy321]

i browse almost exclusively in portrait. Probably because its way easier with one hand.

 

[vi edit]

Without doing any zooming...this is this thread in portrait:

and this is it in landscape:

Not to mention what others said about being easier to hold, particularly with one hand.

Exactly.

 

[thecapsaicinkid]

That portrait image on a 4.3" smartphone would be unreadable, the fact I can see 3 posts at once over a single post with larger text isn't good imo.

Forum posts are just basic paragraphs of text, go to the Anandtech home page. In portrait, nothing is readable without zooming, in landscape, it's small but readable without doing anything.

 

[Red Storm]

That portrait image on a 4.3" smartphone would be unreadable, the fact I can see 3 posts at once over a single post with larger text isn't good imo.

Forum posts are just basic paragraphs of text, go to the Anandtech home page. In portrait, nothing is readable without zooming, in landscape, it's small but readable without doing anything.

Sorry but that's simply not true. It's perfectly readable in portrait. Maybe if you're using something with a really low res screen.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Plus lots of browsers have the ability (or addons) that can adjust font size automatically without having to zoom in (although a double-tap is hardly strenuous).

 

[thecapsaicinkid]

Sorry but that's simply not true. It's perfectly readable in portrait. Maybe if you're using something with a really low res screen.

You have extra large text size set by the looks of it, hence why everything is out of alignment. Set to normal fonts in portrait I see 6 posts with absolutely miniscule text.

 

[Red Storm]

You have extra large text size set by the looks of it, hence why everything is out of alignment. Set to normal fonts in portrait I see 6 posts with absolutely miniscule text.

That's not my image, and nope, I'm sorry but you're wrong. AT is perfectly readable in portrait view on my Nexus 4 without having to do any zooming.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Without doing any zooming...this is this thread in portrait:

and this is it in landscape:

Not to mention what others said about being easier to hold, particularly with one hand.

This also. Landscape sucks when viewing websites. It's why I hate 768p screens on laptops. I didn't get a Nexus 7 b/c the print was just a tad too small in portrait and in landscape you got something similar as above.

For my Nexus 4, I still need to go landscape for some things but I do not use landscape for web browsing on my Nexus 10.

And based on the other threads by the OP, I think he's just trolling.

 

[thecapsaicinkid]

If you can read that on a ~4" screen at arms length, you have superhuman vision. Turn it to landscape and you can see that whole paragraph at a much more readable text size, why would you need to see more than a whole paragraph?

Those forum post images are with extra large text, which will screw up most websites.

 

[Red Storm]

If you can read that on a ~4" screen at arms length, you have superhuman vision. Turn it to landscape and you can see that whole paragraph at a much more readable text size, why would you need to see more than a whole paragraph?

Nobody holds their phone out at arm's length while reading, unless you think people use their phones and tablets like this:

Much less scrolling in portrait is the biggest reason why.

 

[Deeko]

That portrait image on a 4.3" smartphone would be unreadable, the fact I can see 3 posts at once over a single post with larger text isn't good imo.

In the past, with 800x480 pentile displays, your point would be a bit more valid - text would be technically legible, but jagged and hard to read. But with today's full RGB 720p displays, text is small but sharp and perfectly readable. I can browse on my Lumia 920 without zooming in no problem.

You have extra large text size set by the looks of it, hence why everything is out of alignment. Set to normal fonts in portrait I see 6 posts with absolutely miniscule text.

That's my image, not his, and no - I don't have extra large text set. IE mobile adjusts things to be a bit better formatted for small-screen viewing on its own when you have it set to mobile mode. And either way, a forum like this is easier to read in portrait than landscape.

 

[Deeko]

If you can read that on a ~4" screen at arms length, you have superhuman vision. Turn it to landscape and you can see that whole paragraph at a much more readable text size, why would you need to see more than a whole paragraph?

Those forum post images are with extra large text, which will screw up most websites.

A) I just tried it at arms length, and granted I'm not a tall guy so my arms aren't that long, but yes, it's still readable. And I have terrible vision, my contacts are something like -4.75.

B) I'm also sitting at my computer right now, and when I did that, the phone was basically touching my monitor. You generally do not hold a phone that far away from your face anyway, that's like 2-3x the normal reading distance from a smartphone.

C) Once more, no, that is not in extra large text mode, it's default, and no, it does not screw up formatting any more than the trivial oddities you see in the screenshot. Look, here's another example of a site formatted for mobile:

Look - if you like browsing in landscape, go for it. No one is chastising you for it. Why are you so intent on changing the opinion of everyone else on something so trivial?

 

[Anubis]

i can read mine at arms length (nexus 7)

also you need a better browser because i can actually see posts in landscape

 

[thecapsaicinkid]

In the past, with 800x480 pentile displays, your point would be a bit more valid - text would be technically legible, but jagged and hard to read. But with today's full RGB 720p displays, text is small but sharp and perfectly readable. I can browse on my Lumia 920 without zooming in no problem.



That's my image, not his, and no - I don't have extra large text set. IE mobile adjusts things to be a bit better formatted for small-screen viewing on its own when you have it set to mobile mode. And either way, a forum like this is easier to read in portrait than landscape.

IE is changing your font size which is going to trash most website's formatting, even bumping text size up a notch makes a lot of pages ugly. With landscape you can get a larger font but keep the formatting intact. I'm pretty sure resolution doesn't affect the overall text size on most sites.

I've been watching a bunch of device reviews and the reviewer will always pinch and zoom in portrait mode to demo browsing which imo is a horrible experience.

Anandtech homepage, in unzoomed portrait with standard text size on a 4.3" device (stock browser) for me, is pretty much an unreadable text size at about a foot from my nose.

And the comment abou trolling, sheesh, I reckon I could come up with something a little more interesting than the topic in question

 

[thecapsaicinkid]

C) Once more, no, that is not in extra large text mode, it's default, and no, it does not screw up formatting any more than the trivial oddities you see in the screenshot. Look, here's another example of a site formatted for mobile:

Yes it is, look at the blue bars overhanging the post. Your browser is bumping up the font size to make it more readable. You would be seeing twice as many posts with tiny text if it wasn't.

I'm not trying to change people's opinions, just a discussion, lighten up

 

[Deeko]

Yes it is, look at the blue bars overhanging the post. Your browser is bumping up the font size to make it more readable. You would be seeing twice as many posts with tiny text if it wasn't.

Note Anubis' photo - Opera Mobile. Also has the blue bars without the text size change. I have an iPod Touch that also does not change text size at all and still have the same overhang. In fact, I'm on Chrome on my desktop as I type this reply, and it has it as well. Appears to be an issue with the forum software, not any formatting my phone does.

IE is changing your font size which is going to trash most website's formatting, even bumping text size up a notch makes a lot of pages ugly. With landscape you can get a larger font but keep the formatting intact. I'm pretty sure resolution doesn't affect the overall text size on most sites.

Do you have a Windows Phone? I do. And no, formatting is not screwed up on many sites - that text size change you're seeing is somewhat of an anomaly of how IE Mobile renders vBulletin, it doesn't happen everywhere. And even in this case it didn't screw up formatting beyond maybe half a post less visibility on the top line, which is a non-issue after you scroll down past the title anyway.

Anyway, this thread is not about how my phone chooses to render sites. I also have an iPod Touch and Kindle Fire within arms reach, and I use them in portrait mode as well.

 

[XenIneX]

IE is changing your font size which is going to trash most website's formatting, even bumping text size up a notch makes a lot of pages ugly. With landscape you can get a larger font but keep the formatting intact. I'm pretty sure resolution doesn't affect the overall text size on most sites.

Who cares about formatting? Website devs obviously don't. If they really cared about formatting, they'd have coded the stylesheets to degrade gracefully to sub-1024px resolutions, rather than forcing a 1200px-wide column and pillarboxing that so that it's terrible on small and large screens alike.

I'd gleefully pay for a decent mobile browser that could intelligently munge webpages to maximize readability while retaining context. And if it could manage cross-platform bookmark and tab syncing...well, that'd be it; game over.


In any case, I browse in portrait because in portrait: it's more comfortable to hold; the UI chrome doesn't eclipse the page; the keyboard doesn't cover all but a mailslot's worth of page; I have to do much less scrolling; and it's closer to a paper reading experience. And probably for other reasons which are ingrained enough that I no longer think about them.