@stephen there was an era in Web design I call the "JPEG Jigsaw" era which was prevalent from about 1997 until 2005. This was when Web design made extensive use of HTML tables and chopped up bitmaps to force their content to confirm to designs better suited to fixed print layout.
CSS support was inconsistent and limited, and web designers still thought like print designers. Often what looked right visually would not stream through text readers in the right order...