font size is wrong

[Adrienne Boswell]

On the site: http://www.glbasic.com you see a visitor counter. It is
inside:
<p style="font-size:14pt;"> </p>
but it's way too small on my FireFox.

Then change it to a resize able unit, em or percentage, or specify no font
size at all and it will use the default font size.

 

[Gernot Frisch]

On the site: http://www.glbasic.com you see a visitor counter. It is
inside:
<p style="font-size:14pt;"> </p>
but it's way too small on my FireFox.

 

[Gernot Frisch]

Then change it to a resize able unit, em or percentage, or specify
no font
size at all and it will use the default font size.

er... But I want 14 pt - what's the problem with that?

 

[Arne]

er... But I want 14 pt - what's the problem with that?

Because "pt" is for printing, not screen. And since you say it's way to
small, your visitors may not want it. Why do you want it if you feel
like that?

--
/Arne

"I travel cross the country and talked to the most competent persons,
and I can assure you that the computer is a fashion craze that will not
stand the whole year.
(Editor for business literature, Prentice Hall, 1957)

 

[David Dorward]

er... But I want 14 pt - what's the problem with that?

1 - It ignores the user's stated preferences (and it is the user who is
trying to read it, not the author)

2 - When displaying text with a font size specified in points, Internet
Explorer ignores the View > Font Size menu (so if its too small to read,
the user is fairly fubared)

3 - The majority of systems are not calibrated to correctly represent points
on screen, so most people won't get 14pt even if that is what you specify.

 

[Andy Dingley]

er... But I want 14 pt - what's the problem with that?

Lots of problems. Search the archives (and c.i.w.a.h) for why.

1. "You" (site author) don't get to control this, "I" (visitor) get to
control it. Otherwise you can't tell what's actually readable on my
screen.

2. "Points" are a physical dimension, from the history of paper
printing. You can't translate them onto a screen with any real
certainty.

3. "14pt" is by vague default and tradition, quite a large size.
"Default" size for printing is more like 10pt. If you could force a
real "14pt" onto people, then I doubt you'd actually like it for a mere
hit counter.

4. Set body text to 1em and don't mess with it. Vary sizes
proportionately from that, with % or em units, not points. Don't vary
smaller than 67%, or else things are likely to be unreadable (If I
could read text smaller than 2/3rd of default, I'd probably already
have set my default smaller).

 

[Gernot Frisch]

"Andy Dingley" <dingbat@codesmiths.

1. "You" (site author) don't get to control this, "I" (visitor) get
to
control it. Otherwise you can't tell what's actually readable on my
screen.

OK, I use * {font-size: 1em;} now, though it's a bit large for my
taste...

2. "Points" are a physical dimension, from the history of paper
printing. You can't translate them onto a screen with any real
certainty.

I didn't know that. In any text-program you specify font size in pt -
that's why I thought...

3. "14pt" is by vague default and tradition, quite a large size.
"Default" size for printing is more like 10pt. If you could force a
real "14pt" onto people, then I doubt you'd actually like it for a
mere
hit counter.

I wanted it that size. That's OK.

4. Set body text to 1em and don't mess with it. Vary sizes
proportionately from that, with % or em units, not points. Don't
vary
smaller than 67%, or else things are likely to be unreadable (If I
could read text smaller than 2/3rd of default, I'd probably already
have set my default smaller).

For the menu-bar texts I have to use 14px font size, since I urgently
do not want it to be larger than the bar-image in the background. Is
that OK?

Thank you for your help,
-Gernot

 

[kchayka]

For the menu-bar texts I have to use 14px font size, since I urgently
do not want it to be larger than the bar-image in the background. Is
that OK?

What do you suppose will happen when I come to your site, with my
minimum font-size set to 17px? Will the site still be unusable?

Attempts at pixel-precision in web design is usually doomed to failure.
Accept that now and you'll have much less frustration. Design your
layout to adapt gracefully to variations in window and text sizes, and
you'll get much better results.

 

[dorayme]

"Andy Dingley" <dingbat@codesmiths.

OK, I use * {font-size: 1em;} now, though it's a bit large for my
taste...

First, if you are talking about body text, or let us suppose, the
main text, then you have an easy solution, just change your own
browser preferences or options. There has to be some benchmark
from which to do this. It is a complicated issue but to simplify:
a good benchmark from which to set one's own browser preferences
is to view normal text, normal text is arguably 1em. This
establishes a benchmark for everyone in the world. From there,
everyone gets to adjust their own browsers as they like.

For the menu-bar texts I have to use 14px font size, since I urgently
do not want it to be larger than the bar-image in the background. Is
that OK?

You are not noticing what is being said. You do not "have" to use
14px. And there are good over-riding reasons not to. You can use
smaller than 100% or 1em, eg .85em or .8em (I don't think you
should go much lower)

Yes, you are also saying that if you make it easy for the user to
enlarge the text in his browser, it will break your design. Two
things about this:

It has to be bad web design if this is so for at least a range of
text sizes that covers a fairly common spectrum of human users.
Secondly, it is quite easy for quite a few folk (but not all) to
enlarge their text in spite of you making it hard. So altogether
best to follow the advice that AD is giving you, to think how to
design where it is graceful for folk to see things that are
comfortable for them.