Glycerol increases the density of the sample, encouraging it to sink when dispensed into wells, while the dyes provide a convenient marker for evaluating the progress of the run. For a given gel concentration, xylene cyanol FF runs toward the middle of the range of appropriate DNA lengths, while bromophenol blue runs toward the shorter end of the range.
I am using 0.25% (w/v) Bromophenol blue, 0.25% (w/v) xylene cyanol FF, and 30% (w/v) glycerol in H20. Preparing according to "Molecular Cloning: A laboratory manual" by Joseph Sambrook. Refer to the appendices in this book.