It's a balance between keeping the website looking as the designer intended, but also making it practically readable. For many people, the text on the iPhone is still too small to read comfortably and a way to make it bigger without having to scroll repeatedly left and right would be very welcome indeed. At least on Android devices I know that text wrapping can be turned on and off at will.
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Why doesn't Safari wrap text?
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It's a balance between keeping the website looking as the designer intended, but also making it practically readable. For many people, the text on the iPhone is still too small to read comfortably and a way to make it bigger without having to scroll repeatedly left and right would be very welcome indeed. At least on Android devices I know that text wrapping can be turned on and off at will.
I got my wife the verizon iphone last week. It's her first smart phone and my first extended use with an iphone. I find the web browsing on my droid to be much better. I use the xscope browser and I find my phone to load the same web pages just as fast as the iphone. I'm finding the iphone to be very nice and polished, but I was expecting it to be head and shoulders above a rooted droid and it's not. I'm thinking if I used it everyday as much as I use my droid I would appreciate the phone more. Hoping to get an honest evaluation before I upgrade next year.
HTML was designed for reflow
One whole point of HTML is that text is supposed to normally wrap around pictures, and to reflow if the font size or window shape changes.
Desktop browsers do it all the time. Find a site with text, and resize your window. If the site was done _correctly_ (i.e. they didn't hardcode the column width with BRs like an amateur), then the text reflows to stay visible.
Many of us are getting older and like to zoom into text a bit. Sideways scrolling is not only a pain and annoying, but it goes against good HTML style.
Mobile Safari's method of pretending like the entire page is a photograph and should be zoomed into like one, goes against the grain. Almost all other mobile browsers reflow just like desktop browsers.
One whole point of HTML is that text is supposed to normally wrap around pictures, and to reflow if the font size or window shape changes.
Desktop browsers do it all the time. Find a site with text, and resize your window. If the site was done _correctly_ (i.e. they didn't hardcode the column width with BRs like an amateur), then the text reflows to stay visible.
Many of us are getting older and like to zoom into text a bit. Sideways scrolling is not only a pain and annoying, but it goes against good HTML style.
Mobile Safari's method of pretending like the entire page is a photograph and should be zoomed into like one, goes against the grain. Almost all other mobile browsers reflow just like desktop browsers.
no text wrapping in iPhone 4s: deal breaker!
I checked out iPhone 4s yesterday and it too lacks text wrapping with pinch-to-zoom. That's a shame because it is a deal breaker for me because I read a lot on my Android browser. I own a Sprint EVO 3G, and its browser is excellent and better than iOS browser mainly because of this feature. Apple is so arrogant for not even making this an option. As long as more apple fans keep buying Apple iPhones at such massive scale, Apple will enjoy being a spoiled kid. So I don't see Apple changing It's practice until its fans demand a better browser with this feature in it. If only Android would advertise more about this feature and other features that are not available on the iPhone, then maybe Apple would respond to requested features such as a simple option for text wrapping with pinch-to-zoom in Safari, email, and text messaging. Until then, I will love my Android.
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Let's take this issue to Facebook. More Apple fans may become aware of this issue and realize what they are missing. If enough people complain, Apple may finally listen and give us an option for text wrapping with pinch-to-zoom. What do you guys think?
I checked out iPhone 4s yesterday and it too lacks text wrapping with pinch-to-zoom. That's a shame because it is a deal breaker for me because I read a lot on my Android browser. I own a Sprint EVO 3G, and its browser is excellent and better than iOS browser mainly because of this feature. Apple is so arrogant for not even making this an option. As long as more apple fans keep buying Apple iPhones at such massive scale, Apple will enjoy being a spoiled kid. So I don't see Apple changing It's practice until its fans demand a better browser with this feature in it. If only Android would advertise more about this feature and other features that are not available on the iPhone, then maybe Apple would respond to requested features such as a simple option for text wrapping with pinch-to-zoom in Safari, email, and text messaging. Until then, I will love my Android.
----------
Let's take this issue to Facebook. More Apple fans may become aware of this issue and realize what they are missing. If enough people complain, Apple may finally listen and give us an option for text wrapping with pinch-to-zoom. What do you guys think?
There has been some "chatter" about mobile safari possibly adding "Instapaper" functionality, but I appreciate the post that confirms that the idea is still current vapor.
Again, Instapaper has done a great job of addressing this need across a number of fronts. It's basic design is to flag articles on your desktop that you want to read when mobile, but it has evolved so that you can now easily grab a url from mobile safari and open it in Instapaper.
I'm finding that I am reading more because it is finally sinking in that when I hit articles on the desktop that I want to read but don't have time for, it only takes a single click to assure that they are ready to be picked up and read when mobile.
Another great feature is when you receive an unreadable html email, all you have to do is forward it to your Instapaper email address, switch to Instapaper and by the time you get there it is ready to read.
A new release of Instapaper just came out yesterday with more options... although the upgrade apparently broke the "tilt scroll" feature that I hope will be the norm in all apps some day.
Beverly Howard
Again, Instapaper has done a great job of addressing this need across a number of fronts. It's basic design is to flag articles on your desktop that you want to read when mobile, but it has evolved so that you can now easily grab a url from mobile safari and open it in Instapaper.
I'm finding that I am reading more because it is finally sinking in that when I hit articles on the desktop that I want to read but don't have time for, it only takes a single click to assure that they are ready to be picked up and read when mobile.
Another great feature is when you receive an unreadable html email, all you have to do is forward it to your Instapaper email address, switch to Instapaper and by the time you get there it is ready to read.
A new release of Instapaper just came out yesterday with more options... although the upgrade apparently broke the "tilt scroll" feature that I hope will be the norm in all apps some day.
Beverly Howard
I didnt know what you guys were talking about at first but i youtubed what you guys are talking about and im extremely glad iOS doesnt have that honestly i always thought that was stupid
I just discovered the Reader function in Safari. If a site has a lot of text, a small purple button appears and tapping it will render all of the text only into a nice readable format. It's not word wrap but it helps.
Lack of Text Wrapping - Critical usability gap
I would not get an iphone before they add this capability. Or an ipad.
On my android phone, there are two "killer apps" in my opinion that cement me to the android world:
- Text wrapping
- Swype
When these are fixed, I'll consider an iphone. Absolutely not before then.
And, I have an imac, MBA, ipod touch, and am a mac OS maniac, so not like I don't know the products!!
I would not get an iphone before they add this capability. Or an ipad.
On my android phone, there are two "killer apps" in my opinion that cement me to the android world:
- Text wrapping
- Swype
When these are fixed, I'll consider an iphone. Absolutely not before then.
And, I have an imac, MBA, ipod touch, and am a mac OS maniac, so not like I don't know the products!!
Hehe it's funny because I think text wrapping on Android is what's 'broken'. Instead of loading the page by default in a readable view, Android phones require the content to be rejigged on the fly. It seems like a sloppy solution to the problem. It also doesn't actually work very well a lot of time (zooms into the wrong place and/or doesn't actually wrap the text). I'll not buy an Android device until they get this usability gap fixed!
All I can say is that's not been my experience.
cheers!
I shot a few videos last week showing this. Here's the broken text wrapping on Android in comparison to how it works on the iPhone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhZkjtpGL68&sns=em
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edd-cL3-_bo&sns=em
I don't use it one-handed if I'm trying to zoom the view and re-wrap the text.
I use one hand to hold the phone. I have another hand which does the pinch-zoom and the text wraps accordingly.
Have a nice day.
Oh right I assumed you had meant you used some other method to zoom in when you're using your device one handed! I don't always use my phone with two hands so it needs to function properly when double tapping. Sadly, Android phones don't.
So I just tried the double-tap zoom on the HTC droid incredible, and it absolutely zooms and then wraps the text once zoomed. In addition, you can choose a setting (using the default browser) as to how much that double-tap zooms (and then wraps).
So at least on my device, the droid still does wrapping better than i've seen on an apple device. pinch-zoom and double-tap both do what I want nicely. So not sure what you're using for your testing, but the HTC implementation is perfect. perhaps that's a variable here?
And - Thanks for pointing out the double tap option! Now I can browse while driving!
So at least on my device, the droid still does wrapping better than i've seen on an apple device. pinch-zoom and double-tap both do what I want nicely. So not sure what you're using for your testing, but the HTC implementation is perfect. perhaps that's a variable here?
And - Thanks for pointing out the double tap option! Now I can browse while driving!
So I just tried the double-tap zoom on the HTC droid incredible, and it absolutely zooms and then wraps the text once zoomed. In addition, you can choose a setting (using the default browser) as to how much that double-tap zooms (and then wraps).
So at least on my device, the droid still does wrapping better than i've seen on an apple device. pinch-zoom and double-tap both do what I want nicely. So not sure what you're using for your testing, but the HTC implementation is perfect. perhaps that's a variable here?
And - Thanks for pointing out the double tap option! Now I can browse while driving!
I certainly wouldn't advise browsing while driving
. I've tried it on the Android device I have (ZTE Blade) and both a Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy S2. In all instances, double tap zooming is miserable in comparison to the iPhone, which makes them totally unusable. I hope Google fix this soon! I would love for Android to be a viable platform, but it's just so rough around the edges with things like this .I certainly wouldn't advise browsing while driving
Check out 11:30 and on from this link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U43R4tpG0Y
Then get an HTC phone and enjoy!
It looks like there's a similar problem there too. 11:45 he double taps the body of text to zoom into it. For some reason, the phone doesn't zoom to the top line of the bit of text he wants to look at and he has to scroll back up again to start reading. I couldn't put up with that kind of annoyance! Also, when he scrolls back up the page at the level of zoom he leaves it at, all the pictures and graphics are cut off the side of the page, so there's constant left/right scrolling to see the content and/or constant zooming in and out. There's no need to do any of that on the iPhone (thankfully!). This is what needs fixing on the Android platform. It seems Google have gone for the half-arsed 'force text to fit the screen' option rather than the more elegant 'load the page in a readable format from the word go' that Apple takes.
I wonder when Google are going to fix it?
I'm just frustrated that Apple is my only choice because Google can't make the Android web browser work properly
. I'd love to be able to pick an Android device, but there's just these sorts of flaws all over that you simply don't get with the iPhone. I wonder what obstacles are in Google's way to fix this? Are there patents involved that they can't use? Do they lack the skills to fix it? It's just incredibly annoying .I wish Safari could provide the text wrap option.
There are users that like the web page text wrapping function in Safari web browser and some don't. I have been wishing for a year that Safari web browser could offer the text wrapping option to let its users to decide themselves whether they want to activate that option or not so that users of the both sides could be happy. I think that it doesn't have to be a principal insistence for Safari to rule out the text wrapping feature absolutely.
All known popular web browsers have this text wrapping feature by default like Internet Explore (9 or 10), Google Chrome (and Chrome Canary), Opera (and Opera Next) and FireFox (including Aurora and Nightly) have the text wrapping feature.
Because of the lack of this text wrapping feature in Safari, I have to reluctantly use Opera and Chrome interchangeably in Windows and Mac OS computers for a year and in the near future. I wish that there are sufficient number of users similar to my situation to make Apple work on this nice feature as soon as possible.
There are users that like the web page text wrapping function in Safari web browser and some don't. I have been wishing for a year that Safari web browser could offer the text wrapping option to let its users to decide themselves whether they want to activate that option or not so that users of the both sides could be happy. I think that it doesn't have to be a principal insistence for Safari to rule out the text wrapping feature absolutely.
All known popular web browsers have this text wrapping feature by default like Internet Explore (9 or 10), Google Chrome (and Chrome Canary), Opera (and Opera Next) and FireFox (including Aurora and Nightly) have the text wrapping feature.
Because of the lack of this text wrapping feature in Safari, I have to reluctantly use Opera and Chrome interchangeably in Windows and Mac OS computers for a year and in the near future. I wish that there are sufficient number of users similar to my situation to make Apple work on this nice feature as soon as possible.