A propos of the new Reader feature of Safari 5, Derek Powazek just sent a note to Apple: Justified text decreases readability:

Safari 5's new "Reader" feature makes my site less readable by justifying the text. Flush-left text (aka ragged-right) is demonstrably more readable, especially when the rendering engine doesn't know how to hyphenate. You never, ever justify text without hyphenation.

One of his readers disagrees with him:

I prefer the justified text and was extremely and specifically pleased Apple made Reader this way. As I get older, justified text is infinitely easier to read as long as the column width is not so wide that my eye loses track of the left edge. Ragged right text just looks lazy and sloppy, to my eye at least. I realize I may be in a minority.

I see this comment as a sign that Apple will not fix this, because to the dismay of typography experts (and mine), most people out there without significant reading impairment cater to justified text for aesthetic reasons only. Those are Apple clients, and Apple will please them before the typography experts.

I have made this test numerous times: it's only when you point to someone how their eyes travel on a page and what constitutes an obstacle that they become conscious of readability issues.

You can make this test yourself.

Take attention-grabbing stuff on the left of a main content column, for left-to-right readers (or the reverse for right-to-left languages). When you read text and reach the end of the line, your eyes will travel back to the left in an automatic movement to fetch the left edge of the text column. If something is placed on the left of the text column, and is prominent enough to catch your eyes attention, they will continue to travel left and fly far more than necessary, then you will have to make an extra effort to realign them on the left edge of the text column to resume reading. And this for each line of text where there's something distracting on its left.

Most people will not notice this readability issue (until they get a headache maybe). But once you make them conscious of their eyes movement, the cognitive and muscular taxes imposed by the obstacle on the left become almost painfully visible.

(Disclaimer: I manage the communication for Paris Web, this is a copy of the official call for speakers.)

Hello all,

Paris Web is a French conference organised each year and revolving around questions of web accessibility, quality and design. For its fifth edition, the conference wants to broaden its subject base and suggests that you think of this question:“Improve the user experience through appropriate design and contents” (non-limiting question).

Paris Web 2010 will take place on the 14-16th of October 2010, and we invite all the potential speakers to speak out and get in touch with us at propositions@paris-web.fr.

You can submit one or more topics under the following formats:

1. Conference:  50 minutes, Q&A included
2. Mini-conference: 15 minutes, without Q&A
3. Workshop: 1 hour 30 (or 3 hours for a double-length workshop)

Conferences and mini-conferences will take place in amphitheaters on Thursday and Friday. Workshops will take place in 40 to 60 people rooms on Saturday. They are a moment of intense interactivity, and can be either theoretical or practical (rooms with computers will be provided if necessary).

The deadline for proposals is set to the 31st of May 2010.

Ideally, here is the form your proposal should have:

1. You, in a few lines
   Who are you? What is your experience? Your specialty?
2. Your subject
   In up to ten lines, a title (doesn't need to be the definitive choice)
   and a summary of what you wish to deal with. Please indicate the
   estimated level of the audience.
3. The form of your intervention
   According to you, will this be better suited for a conference, a
   mini-conference, or a workshop? (We can talk about it.)

People who have submitted a subject will be notified personally, whether their subject is selected or not.

If you are selected, you will be able to have your travel expenses and hotel paid. Please bear in mind that videos will be recorded and will be made available for free on the internet (under the CC-By-NC licence).

We can't wait for October!

If you want to have a look at what it's like, there are close to 1,600 pictures of past Paris Web events on Flick.

I'll be at Webstock this year again. I enjoyed it a lot last year and I'm really looking forward to seeing this edition. I only go to two web conferences nowadays, Paris Web as an organizer and Webstock as an attendee. Each one at the other side of the world and both shock-full of great people and topics. While the main focus is the same and attendees have similar profiles, the perspective is different. It gives me a richer view of the interwebs, and I love it.

Welcome and bonne année !

2010 marks the start of the third fiscal year for my little company Ubiquitic, although I have been freelancing for longer than that. In 2008 I followed my heart and took a 18,000km plunge from Paris to Noumea. I was very lucky to retain my loyal clients and gain new ones who helped me make this adventure aux antipodes a success. I thank them for trusting me and validating my first reason for giving this name to my company: that the internet can make one ubiquitous enough to work remotely with people all around the globe.

2010 also marks for me 30 years of passion and work with computers, 17 with the internet and 7 as a blogger. But even so that makes me quite an old dog in internet time, the excitement, passion and curiosity continue unabated, because I am still learning after all those years and it feels good! I guess the little stage fright in launching a new site and starting a new blog is normal (some say it comes with talent ;-).

I wish you all a very good year. I think it's going to be mobile, more than ever.