Packed, or in order

A packed layout reads down each column, which is fine for a wall of pictures and wrong for anything sequential. The numbers below show it.

Packed, column order

A granite cliff above a river, with conifers along both banks
01
02

A card with no picture

Taller than its neighbours, which is the whole reason to pack rather than to put everything in equal boxes.

A fjord far below, seen from a clifftop where people are standing on the rock
03
A red sandstone canyon lit low by the sun, under broken cloud
04

Note where this one landed.

05

Short

A single track road winding between steep green hills under low cloud
06
07

Reading order here is 1, 2, 3 down the first column, not across the top. For photographs nobody minds. For steps in a process it is a bug.

A waterfall dropping from a cliff into a conifer forest in mist
08

Ordered, row order

  1. A red sandstone canyon lit low by the sun, under broken cloud
    01

    Across, not down.

  2. 02

    Second is beside first

    Which is what a reader, a screen reader and the tab key all expect.

  3. A griffon vulture coming in to land with its wings spread wide
    03
  4. 04

    Two columns wide

    A column layout has no concept of this, which is another thing the packed version cannot do.

  5. A granite cliff above a river, with conifers along both banks
    05
  6. 06

    The gaps under the short cards are the price of the order. It is usually worth paying.