twentyten theme single column width

[usermrpapa]

is it just me? why if you select the one column, no sidebar page template on the new default theme, is the content area the same width as if there was a sidebar?

The styling: .onecolumn #content

is limiting the content width to 640px... So you end up with a relatively narrow content column with a large amount of whitespace (half sidebar width) on either side...

Why not make that .onecolumn #content styling width be 100% so the single column format actually uses the available width?

can't imagine this is intentional...

[usermrpapa]

happy to work up a patch, but wanted to see if there was something else at play here...

[iammattthomas]

This is by design. The theme's content width is designed to be a set 640 pixels wide for comfortable reading (​"Choose a Comfortable Measure," The Elements of Typographic Style) and reliable image alignment between the WYSIWYG editor and the live design.

[usermrpapa]

lol - okay, but no use removing sidebars then... unless one likes empty white space...

[iammattthomas]

I've found that love of white space isn't the worst reason to do something. :) But there was a specific point: a request for an alternative page template to help users and budding theme builders understand the page templates feature. A page that removes the sidebar is about the simplest possible example of one.

[usermrpapa]

understand - wasn't for me. just prepping for our users that will ask how do they make our plugin (it's a forum) use all the available content width.