This is the first in a series of tutorials on how to increase the readability of your web design using available typographic knowledge.

As noted previously, fluid or liquid designs can aid tremendously in the design of a page. But if you’ve ever tried to follow a long discourse that someone has posted on an internet forum, you quickly realize the major disadvantage:

It’s hard to read.

Column widths, or their “measure” in design-speak, have a tremendous impact on the readability of a particular design. While no hard and fast rules exist, there are two not-exactly-rules that you can follow to make your designs as readable as the daily news.