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| 1 | +# Page Layout & Width Conventions |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +How wide should a page's content be? These are **configuration / dashboard pages for an |
| 4 | +API system** — not prose or marketing. The goal is dense, scannable, uncramped control |
| 5 | +surfaces, not a comfortable reading column for long-form text. |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +## Why cap the width at all |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +A `max-width` cap is **not** about fitting small screens — narrow displays are already |
| 10 | +handled by responsive padding (`px-4`), `sm:`/`md:` breakpoints, and `overflow-x-auto`. |
| 11 | +The cap only matters on screens *wider* than the cap, and it earns its place by: |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +- **Keeping eye-scan distance sane.** Form labels and rows of fields stretched across a |
| 14 | + 27"/4K monitor force the eye to travel a long way to pair a label with its value. |
| 15 | +- **Centering content** (`mx-auto`) so wide screens look intentional instead of pinning |
| 16 | + everything to the left with a huge empty right gutter. |
| 17 | +- **Sizing forms sensibly** — a single text input is absurd at 2000px wide. |
| 18 | + |
| 19 | +It is **not** about line length for prose (we rarely have paragraphs here). |
| 20 | + |
| 21 | +## The default |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | +Standard configuration page wrapper: |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | +```svelte |
| 26 | +<div class="container mx-auto max-w-7xl px-4 py-8"> |
| 27 | +``` |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | +`max-w-7xl` (1280px) is our default for pages that mix metadata cards, forms, and tables. |
| 30 | +It feels full on a laptop without sprawling on a large monitor. |
| 31 | + |
| 32 | +| Use case | Width | |
| 33 | +| ---------------------------------------------------- | ---------------- | |
| 34 | +| **Default** config/dashboard page (cards + forms) | `max-w-7xl` | |
| 35 | +| Focused single-column form / wizard step | `max-w-2xl`–`3xl`| |
| 36 | +| Wide data: tables, code/JSON, diagrams | **break out** (see below) | |
| 37 | + |
| 38 | +Avoid inventing new in-between caps (`4xl`, `5xl`, `6xl`) per page. Pick from the rows |
| 39 | +above so detail pages line up with each other. |
| 40 | + |
| 41 | +## Why consistency across pages matters |
| 42 | + |
| 43 | +Consistency is best practice — but it's a **means, not the goal**. The goal is to reduce |
| 44 | +friction and communicate clearly. Consistency serves that by: |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +- **Predictability.** When every detail page is the same width and aligns the same way, |
| 47 | + users build a mental model once and reuse it everywhere (Jakob's Law — people expect |
| 48 | + your app to match patterns they already know, including its own internal patterns). The |
| 49 | + page becomes muscle memory instead of something to figure out. |
| 50 | +- **Lower cognitive load.** Every arbitrary visual difference is a small question the brain |
| 51 | + has to answer — "is this page wider on purpose? does it mean something?" Random variation |
| 52 | + spends the user's attention on noise instead of the task (configuring the API). |
| 53 | +- **Maintainability.** A small set of known widths is easier to restyle and test than a |
| 54 | + dozen bespoke ones. Change the default once, not on every page. |
| 55 | +- **Perceived quality.** Consistent spacing/width reads as intentional; random variation |
| 56 | + reads as unfinished, even when users can't say why. |
| 57 | + |
| 58 | +The important nuance — **constrain arbitrary variation, allow meaningful variation:** |
| 59 | + |
| 60 | +- Consistency means "similar things look similar; different things look different." A |
| 61 | + focused single-field form *should* be narrower than a wide data table — that difference |
| 62 | + is meaningful and helps. That's why this doc allows a few tiers (form / default / |
| 63 | + break-out) rather than one width everywhere. |
| 64 | +- The reason to avoid a new `4xl`/`5xl`/`6xl` per page isn't that those values are wrong — |
| 65 | + it's that picking widths *ad hoc, page by page* produces variation that carries no |
| 66 | + meaning. If a genuinely new tier is needed, **add it to the table above** so other pages |
| 67 | + can line up with it too, rather than leaving a one-off. |
| 68 | +- Don't let consistency calcify a bad default. "We've always done it this way" isn't a |
| 69 | + reason; deviate deliberately when a page has a real different need — then promote that |
| 70 | + deviation back into the shared set. |
| 71 | + |
| 72 | +## Wide data should break out, not squeeze |
| 73 | + |
| 74 | +The width that's comfortable for forms is too narrow for a wide table. When a page has a |
| 75 | +table/code block with many columns, **don't** widen the whole page to fit it — that makes |
| 76 | +the forms sprawl too. Instead let the wide element break out of the reading-width column |
| 77 | +while the cards/forms stay capped: |
| 78 | + |
| 79 | +```svelte |
| 80 | +<div class="container mx-auto max-w-7xl px-4 py-8"> |
| 81 | + <!-- metadata cards, forms: stay at max-w-7xl --> |
| 82 | +
|
| 83 | + <!-- wide table: break out to full viewport width --> |
| 84 | + <div class="mb-6"> |
| 85 | + <div class="overflow-x-auto"> |
| 86 | + <table class="min-w-full ...">...</table> |
| 87 | + </div> |
| 88 | + </div> |
| 89 | +</div> |
| 90 | +``` |
| 91 | + |
| 92 | +Always wrap wide tables in `overflow-x-auto` so they scroll horizontally on smaller |
| 93 | +screens instead of overflowing the page. Note the scrollbar sits at the *bottom* of the |
| 94 | +table — for very tall tables, prefer breaking out / widening so users don't have to find |
| 95 | +it, rather than relying on the scroll alone. |
| 96 | + |
| 97 | +## Checklist for a new detail/config page |
| 98 | + |
| 99 | +- [ ] Page wrapper is `container mx-auto max-w-7xl px-4 py-8` (or a narrower cap from the |
| 100 | + table above if it's a focused form). |
| 101 | +- [ ] Any multi-column table or code/JSON block is wrapped in `overflow-x-auto`. |
| 102 | +- [ ] If a table is the widest thing on the page and feels cramped, break it out to full |
| 103 | + width rather than bumping the whole page's cap. |
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