Why is my browser leaving out so much space in both sides?

Question

While browsing, my browser left a lot of space in its both sides. I just installed Ubuntu 18 just a two days ago.

Here are some screenshots :

How do I reduce those extra spaces. All my browsing pages looks so tiny and very hard to focus.

What to do?

Solution 1

If you are lazy, and don't want to adjust the zoom level on every page with ctrl + and -, you can install this add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/zoom-page-we/

It has an option "Fit-to-width"

Solution 2

This is normal. It depends on how a site is designed (for example, from the screenshots you added, Stack Overflow and help.ubuntu.com have the empty spaces, but YouTube doesn't).

In general, regarding everything being tiny on all sites, you can reduce your screen resolution, or use zoom in Firefox settings.

Solution 3

You can set a default zoom level in your Firefox settings. Check which level best suits your favourite websites and set it up. Next time you open firefox, all websites will be displayed with this zoom applied

Solution 4

Scaling

If you came from windows

I am going out on a limp assuming you came from Windows when you say that "I just installed Ubuntu 18 just a two days ago.". On Windows by default when you have a 1980x1080 laptop it will zoom in everything:

This means that everything will be bigger, and thus less things will be visible. Personally I don't like this, but some people do and it's especially useful if text otherwise becomes too small to read for you. The important thing to realize is that despite all the empty space on the left and right you actually still see more actual content than you would've seen otherwise.

On Ubuntu

Not currently using Ubuntu, but Googling around it seems like Ubuntu 18 doesn't currently support system-wide scaling in a similar way. There is experimental (!!!) support for this in Ubuntu 19: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/06/enable-fractional-scaling-ubuntu-19-04

Why do websites leave all that blank space?

On one hand websites need to support both smaller displays (e.g. tablets and small notebooks) and zoomed displays (e.g. Windows and Macs) and on the other hand small extremely long lines of text is hard to track with one's eyes, so 'just making the website full width' won't be appreciated. The easiest solution is just using a single website design with a maximum width.

My recommendation to you

If you're able to comfortably read text without zooming in: Just get used to this. A useful shortcut to learn is Super+Left Arrow and Super+Right Arrow (The 'Super' key is the key which typically has a Windows or Apple logo on it). It allows you to very easily snap two windows to the left and right part of the screen which with most professional work can useful.

If you're not able to comfortable read text without zooming in: Either upgrade to the next version of Ubuntu and try out that experimental support from that earlier link, or set your resolution to a lower value.

Solution 5

Al the right side of your browser screen you see the three stripes for changing the preferences or calling the menu. Push it,search for zoom, and change the zoom factor to for ex. to 133%

View more solutions

Comments

[Pilot6]

I don't see anything unusual. I see these sites the same way if I maximize the browser.

[kashish]

what's your screen resolution?

[Moshrekul Islam]

Screen resolution is 1920x1080(16:9) @kashish

[Moshrekul Islam]

It's happening with all websites @pomsky

[pomsky]

Moshrekul, as evident from the new screenshot (YouTube one), there is no problem at all, see how YouTube spans the whole window. So your previous claim that it's happening with all websites very wrong. The two initial screenshots you posted show the gaps because it's specific to those two websites (Stack Overflow and help.ubuntu.com), those sites are designed to be like this. @Pilot6 Please consider posting your first comment as an answer.

[jamesqf]

Many people, probably the majority, find it difficult to read text that's more than about 60-80 characters wide. (Look at books, or consider why newspapers have text set in columns.) So most web sites format their pages that way. WRT tiny text, you should be able to change the default font size, or zoom the whole page.

[abligh]

Make the window less wide?

[Everything123 Channel]

I have an ultra wide monitor and Ubuntu 18.04. You need to see mine

[Everything123 Channel]

This is because they didn't use bootstrap or maybe didn't use viewport properties in CSS

[OrangeDog]

Because the website told it to.

[Moshrekul Islam]

I have tried it. But I have to do it for every single page in my window. So what I am asking is , how can I get rid of those spaces. Take a look at those screenshot I have attached.

[Julien Chau]

Change the zoom factor, and close firefox. Restart. Perhaps you will find here more: howtogeek.com/657255/how-to-set-a-default-zoom-level-in-fire‌​fox

[chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic-]

Font settings are generally a better option than either non-native resolution or zooming.

[ski]

@MoshrekulIslam: "how can I get rid of those spaces" – You'll have to ask the authors of those sites to change their design to leave out the spaces.

[rubo77]

No, if you set a large minimum font you're gonna break the design of many web pages. Zoom with ctrl + and - is actually the easiest solution

[David Mulder]

Not currently using Ubuntu, but didn't Ubuntu also now support a 'scale' parameter on the display settings? I have a vague recollection reading an article about that, which is - if well supported - a lot better than lowering resolution.