resolved Signature restrictions question

[DPBOX 75]

The Signature Restrictions say that signatures can have a maximum of 5 lines. However, there are 3 ways that text is displayed in the site according to the Post Preview window, which are Desktop, Tablet, and Phone. Well, which one does the 5 line limit apply to, desktop, tablet, or phone?

Edited April 14, 2023 by The Wife of Law

[Rikifive 24,231]

The 5 line restriction only limits the amount of actual lines you put in your signature by hitting enter to separate these. This basically limits the times you can press [ENTER] to separate lines, so to speak.

A single long line of text will automatically break into multiple lines if it won't fit in smaller displays and this is not affected by this restriction. An insanely long line of text, that will break into multiple ones even in the editor while you're editing the signature counts as one line until you hit enter and therefore, a signature that seemingly has more than 5 lines is valid if it contains automatic breaks. So in the end, it is possible to have more than 5 lines if, for example, you'll type everything in a single line (that is, type everything without pressing enter at any point). The end amount of lines varies between displays (browser's width, devices, etc.) but it isn't affected by this limit and the text may be displayed in more than 5 lines if necessary.

 However, be aware, that there is a hidden limit, where regardless of content/display_width, only 245 pixels (height) are displayed in signatures. If in any way your signature will have more than 245 pixels vertically, it will appear snipped. Signatures higher than 245 pixels are valid, but everything beyond 245th pixel won't be displayed.

For a reference, imagine five 50x50 boxes stacked on each other, the last one would have 5 missing pixels:

Same applies to any other content, including text, where characters on the border may be displayed partially. So this is something to consider when putting very long text, as with enough line breaks on smaller displays, the text may go beyond these 245 pixels.

With the default-sized font and nothing else, the signature can display up to 12 lines of text before exceeding the drawn height. Everything beyond 12th line won't be displayed.

 

 Also, signatures aren't displayed in mobile view. So let's say, that there's a minimum width, at which signatures become visible.

 

I hope this helps! 

[DPBOX 75]

Wow, very detailed! Thank you very much!

Then it would be nice if this text was changed from "Maximum of 5 lines" to "Maximum of 5 Enter presses".

[Rikifive 24,231]

It can be interpret in multiple ways that's true, but it's not lying. You can put up to 5 lines. It's not about how many lines are visible (as it's all over the place depending on browser's width etc.), but how many actual "lines" there are. A long line, where automatic break may occur is still a single line, it's just wrapped for visibility for the end user, who is viewing the signature.

- Pressing enter creates a new "paragraph".
- Pressing shift+enter creates a new "line".
- Automatic break doesn't create an actual additional "line".

 

Soooo, throwing a very long line on purpose is basically bypassing the limit, kind of an abuse one could say. 

The idea is to have up to 5 lines, but the line's width drastically varies between browser's widths, so it's not really possible to force to always have these 5 lines, without setting a tiiiiiiny width limit of a single line, so that it wouldn't break text even on smallest widths. It's more of an imperfect restriction, rather than being wrongly named, because these "5 lines" is actually correct.

A not-bad solution would be to have, let's say, up to 5 lines, where each line could have up to X amount of characters. That restriction would make more sense then and in general would be clearer to understand and all the same for any resolution, even if there could be more than 5 lines in the end in smaller widths.

Buuuuuut it is what it is and what it says is correct. 

 

You're welcome. c:

 

Edited August 8, 2020 by Rikifive