Why would you label a Webtoon "Desktop Only"?

[DokiDokiTsuna]

One of the webtoons I'm subscribed to has that in its description, and I'm wondering why. Is it just that it's not formatted for mobile? And in that case, why wouldn't you format it for mobile?? It just seems like the stronger advertising play, and its not as if desktop people wouldn't be able to read it...

[Daknight]

That seems really weird label, which webtoon is it? I am guessing the only reason is he might had gotten a lot of comments about the font being small in mobile and instead of fixing decided to put a 'desktop only' label?

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Cloudy Wondrous

[grimnir]

'Formatted for mobile' typically means done in the long, vertical style with large font and often a lot of white space.
This is in contrast to more traditional layouts, which are intended to fit onto a page. They use panels and usually the text is smaller. This usually works fine on a desktop, but may be hard to read on small screens.

As for why? Maybe they hope to print it someday, and want it formatted correctly. Maybe they just prefer how it looks. Maybe they've been doing it that way for a while and don't want to change.
I don't have personal experience with this, but I believe that converting from a traditional paneled page to vertical takes a lot of effort, and may not work well/at all if there are unusual panel layouts.

Vertical comics are a relatively new invention, and not everyone likes them. It does offer some advantages, especially for small screens, but there's a lot of interesting things you can do with standard pages that become impossible in that format.
Personally, I prefer the traditional pages, but that's just me.

[Daknight]

In all honesty I have no idea why he labels it desktop-only. There is really no 'formatting' for mobile, you get the same experience in mobile as in desktop on. Is clear is done in a manga style (per page) but many webtoons are that way, so it following the 'webtoon' format is not a must. I think having that label might actually scare potential reader when is really not needed.

I checked it in my phone and in my desktop...really same experience, of course more scrolling on the phone, but otherwise it felt the same and the font is still easy to read in mobile.

[orangeh00dey]

Personally, I'm not a fan of the new "mobile layout" that's gaining popularity. I don't enjoy scrolling down a million times to read what could be done in one page. It's also creatively stifling. You lose a lot of interesting creative things too, like what grimnir said.

[PaulieBlade]

Really agree with grimnir and orangeh00dey. Not being able to position panels in a traditional page format kills so many opportunities for an interesting page design. I upload my book onto Webtoons as well, but because of the mobile format focus, they allow only 800 px wide images. This is too small even for a desktop view. I hate this new trend, so I don't have a problem with a "desktop only" tag, even though probably it does alienate some readers.