[chc]

A couple of reasons besides stylistic pretension (though that might be true in some cases):

1. Skinny columns of text are easier to scan quickly. This is the same reason newspapers do it.

2. When you're using a fixed-width layout, you're going to look skinny at some screen resolutions and scroll horizontally on others. People are generally more horrified by the latter than the former, so they go conservative and target a fairly small screen size — in that case, 640px wide. Very likely, the people behind the site have a smaller display than you do (though a site targeting 640x480 is still probably aiming a few notches below their own display).

[initlaunch]

Yes, having too many words on one line is hard to read. I would rather they just increase the size of everything.. sure it might lead to a little more vertical scrolling, but we're all used to that.

Like you said, there's no one optimal layout for all resolutions, and maybe i'm running higher than most people (1440 x 900 on my 15" mbp.. the default). But I would have thought it would be standard by now take into account the screen's resolution when laying things out. Maybe that's too difficult.. I don't know.

[rcfox]

Solution: Don't do fixed-width layouts.

[RiderOfGiraffes]

Would you mind expanding on this? Suppose I have a body of text, and I want to adhere to the guideline of having some 10 or 12 words per line.

How would you recommend I accomplish that?

[RiderOfGiraffes]

Hmm. Disappointing that you haven't replied.