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Learning To Love the Code: HTML As a Tool in the Writing Classroom | Margaret Batschelet

Print Formats Vs. Screen Formats

Print media will require a white (or at least light) background and dark print, but, obviously, monitors can support other color combinations. This question of which colors to apply to the screen and which to apply to paper can lead to discussions of screen readability, including questions of readable color combinations and problems for colorblind viewers (see Hill for results of one color combination study; Websitetips.com provides a good index of resources on both color combinations and design for colorblind users). Font use is another area of concern. Many designers (e.g., Williams 84) argue that serif typefaces are more legible for print because the serifs help to lead the eye across a line of type. However, other designers (e.g., Nielsen 126) argue that web pages should use sans serif typefaces because the low resolution of computer screens does not render serifs adequately. Using the media attribute, students can choose to specify a serif typeface for the print version of their pages and a sans serif typeface for the screen, and the class can discuss the differences in style and mood that these choices present.

The layout of the page can also be affected by the use of alternative stylesheets. Lynch and Horton point out that "the lines of text on most web pages are much too long for easy reading" (85). They argue for a line length of about fifty to seventy characters, depending on tradeoffs such as browser software, operating systems, and screen resolution. Previously, web designers were forced to use a combination of tables and nonbreaking spaces or "transparent" GIF graphics placed in "empty" table columns to achieve the effect of left margins (and this method is still employed by some authoring software). However, CSS allows designers to set margins for the entire page or for a portion of it using the margin attribute; students can set a margin for their pages using body as a selector and measuring space in any of several systems, including pixels, picas, inches, and percents (for flexible, "liquid" margins). The specification looks like this:
body{margin-left:50px}
This style rule will produce a left margin of fifty pixels for the entire page.

After the margin is set, students can use the alternative print stylesheet to set a narrower margin for print versions where resolution will be less of an issue and longer lines are more desirable. Again, discussing these choices with students calls attention to the difference between page and screen, and to the shift in thinking and designing required to move from one to the other.

Even the measurements used for web pages and print pages are different. Although most web designers caution against using points to measure fonts for online use (the Frequently Asked Questions at RichinStyle.com provide a partial explanation), points remain the most effective way to indicate font sizes for print, and they are thus the best choice for a print style sheet. Similarly, pixels make a great deal of sense for measuring space like margins on the screen, but they are meaningless on a printed page where inches or picas are more familiar (although it should be noted that some browsers have difficulty in interpreting inches—for Internet Explorer, picas seem to work better); the two style sheets would thus use different measurements for spacing. Using the Media attribute, students can experiment with the differences in measurement systems, and the differences in audience expectations that they imply.

The minutiae of these discussions may seem far removed from the business of a writing class. And yet approaching these questions can lead to a more wide-ranging discussion of visual rhetoric in general. Calling attention to the differences between the look of a printed page and the look of a screen page (and the mechanisms for achieving those looks) can lead to questions of appropriateness and expectation in terms of visual rhetoric, and ultimately to the necessity of deliberate design for both print and screen.

Citation Format: Batschelet, Margaret. "Learning To Love the Code: HTML As a Tool in the Writing Classroom." The Writing Instructor. 2004. http://www.writinginstructor.org/files/batschelet/ (Date Accessed).
Review Process: Margaret Batschelet's hypertext was accepted for publication following blind, peer review.