Today, most websites and blogs are set to a fixed width. This is because a fixed width blog is easier to read. Eye-tracking studies show that reading long lines of text can become very tiring on the eyes, and it is much better to limit the size of your text blocks.

Ok - so you want to use a fixed-width blog theme, but what should you do with the rest of the space? How should you use the additional pixels when viewers decide to expand their web browser so that it takes up the entire screen?

1. Show more information

In general, this is a bad idea. A busy screen, with too much information, is difficult to read, and not visually compelling.

Showing more information on the margins of your fixed-width blog defeats the purpose of a fixed-width blog.

2. Fill the browser background with a solid color

Most fixed-width blog designs center the blog content so that it will be most prominent to the eye, and fills the rest of the space with a solid color.

Below is a screen-shot of my fixed-width WordPress blog, centered, and filled with my blog background color.

This simple design works, but it leaves my blog looking as if it is just part of the background. One way to distinguish your blog from the background, is by using a dark border.

Below, we use a dark gradient border that makes our blog stand-out from the rest of the screen.

We can make our blog stand-out even more by using a different background color. A good choice is a darker gray because it is not glaring, and it will not compete with your blog in drawing your readers' attention.

White is also frequently used as a background color. However, while a white blog makes sense because it makes your text easy to read, a white screen background can be glaring and lead to eye fatigue.

Another very stylish type of blog background, is a black background that bleeds into our main blog page. This is an interesting effect because rather than creating a distinct border, we create a softer feather effect around the edges of our blog.

The gray and black backgrounds are my personal favorites because it is not glaring, and it brings out the content of your blog. A reader's eyes will be naturally drawn to the colors on the screen which is to your blog.

The same cannot be said for the other background options.

The Shiba WordPress theme is truly dynamic and has all these different background options built in. Choose which background option you want from a drop-down menu in your WordPress dashboard, and have it automatically appear on your blog. This allows you to easily switch between the different background options and choose the one that best fits your taste and blog colors.

Alternatively, you can achieve any of these effects by applying a transparent PNG gradient onto the background of your blog.