Comment by crazygringo

> people reading can read it

Which is why screenshots help, for the reasons I gave

> people reading can copy and paste it

Why? If there's something like a user ID or error code that the person needs as text, I'll paste that separately. Stuff I include in a screenshot is for understanding, not copying and pasting.

> and people searching can actually find it.

Which is what the message text around the screenshot is for. Which actually includes the relevant keywords, not random tabular data or lines of code which just add noise to search.

> Anybody wanting to look at the actual text in context won't be doing it in the chat, but will rather be opening the file of interest in the appropriate tool, and examining it that way;

Except when they aren't/can't. The whole point of screenshots is for when they can't access something easily that way, which happens for a million different reasons.

> anybody stuck reading the text only in the chat is probably on their phone or something and will be best served by being able to easily see all of it.

Which is what images make far easier to read without being messed up.

> For reading purposes, the question of screen width is best left to the reader. They will have the window set to their preferred width, possibly limited by screen size. If the text has to wrap, so be it.

No it's not. Wrapping destroys indentation and alignment. It's not "so be it", it goes from readable to literally unreadable. I can't change the width of my phone or a lot of viewing areas. I can always scroll an image horizontally though.

> It's better that than having to try to squint at your 3713x211 screen grab on an iPhone (portrait orientation).

Which is why zooming and panning exist. I don't know where you're getting something silly like 3713 pixels though. But if that's the width of some massive table whose layout needs to be preserved, then so be it.