What is GitHub's character limit, or line length for viewing files on GitHub?

Question

I simple wanted to know how many characters can be viewed without overflow (horizontal scrolling) on any GitHub source view page.

Answer 1

With the new GitHub design, 160 characters are visible for me on Ubuntu - Chrome or Firefox.

1280×1024 users will initially see 158 characters if they have a vertical scrollbar, though by scrolling a little horizontally they can still view 160 characters with up to 4 digits of line numbers.

So basically 160 characters is now fairly safe for desktop users. Mobile users are pretty much a lost cause - 37 characters for devices 360 CSS pixels wide.

Thanks to @aizatto for the link to https://github.com/aizatto/character-length.

Answer 2

On OS X v10.9 (Mavericks):

• Google Chrome: 125
• Firefox: 122
• Safari: 121

Answer 3

I was just testing this again https://github.com/aizatto/character-length

Testing on macOS Sierra 10.12.6 (16G29):

For both:

• Safari Version 11.0 (12604.1.38.1.7)
• Chrome Version 60.0.3112.113 (Official Build) (64-bit):

When:

• Viewing a file (Fixed Length): 117 chars
• Viewing a diff (Scales):
  • 920px width - Half of MBPr 15"; Usable but requires scrolling: 58 chars
  • 1280px width - 3/4s of MBPr 5"; 1/2 of 2880px; Decent: 78 chars
  • 1706px width - 3/4s of 2560px: 115 chars
  • 1920px width - MBPr 15": 120 chars
  • 2560px width: 164 chars

Answer 4

I attempted to simulate the font-family fall back with the web inspector

On Ubuntu:

• Firefox: 126
• Opera 12.16: 126

• Chromium: 113