Text size

[Robert Latest]

On Sun, 23 Oct 2005 18:08:18 +0100,

It's the only way I can get the text to be the same in both FireFox and IE
without having to keep changing the size of the text in firefox, which also
then means that i'll have to change it when I go to another site, something
that is a major pain in the arse and why I have some sites open only in IE.
I'm using the Veranda font so I think that is also making the text a bit
bigger in FireFox too.

You can't rely on Verdana (or any font, really) being installed on your
reader's computer.

On mine it isn't, anyway.

robert

 

[Stewart Gordon]

I was hoping someone can help me.

OK, I am in the process of redesigning my website and I've noticed that in
firefox the text is slightly bigger then in IE, nothing major or anything
but would prefer the text to be the exact same size in both. I use the
normal html <font size=1> text </font>. Can anyone help?

allmyfaqs.com seems to have expired!

Fortunately Google still has a copy to date....

http://tinyurl.com/7mven

Stewart.

--
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCS/M d- s:- C++@ a->--- UB@ P+ L E@ W++@ N+++ o K-@ w++@ O? M V? PS-
PE- Y? PGP- t- 5? X? R b DI? D G e++>++++ h-- r-- !y
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

My e-mail is valid but not my primary mailbox. Please keep replies on
the 'group where everyone may benefit.

 

[Alan J. Flavell]

So why not use Arial with 10-11px if size in pixels necessarily want
to be used, insted of Verdana 9px.

As an author writing for the web, you should *not* be using px as a
text size unit at all. The specific numbers, or the specific font
names, are not the point, at this level of the choice - the author
should simply not be doing it at all. And the same goes for absolute
size units (pt, mm, whatever).

(Stylesheets that are specifically for some other purpose, e.g print,
could well be different. I'm not dealing with those here.)

The main reasons are 1. it doesn't work (because users' displays
mostly aren't calibrated), and 2. even if it *did* work, it wouldn't
be what users need, in general. Yeah, I know the arguments which boil
down to "it's what the designer wants, and it's good enough for most
web users, so there", but I don't care for that argument myself.

If you base your sizing on the user's configured default, then pretty
much the worst that can happen is that they get the font size that
Bill seems to think they want, rather than the one that the designer
thinks they want. Who can say whether the designer knows better what
that kind of user wants than Bill does? For sure Bill has made far
more out of his business than any web designer is ever likely to.

But, even better, those *discerning* users who made a choice (or don't
you want discerning users to visit your web sites?) will get what they
chose, whereas they usually have to put up with designers who argue
with their choice - sometimes so badly that they need to fight back.

best