Re: Text Size

by Andrew McFarland <aamcf(at)aamcf.co.uk>

 Date:  Mon, 03 Jun 2002 12:14:26 +0100
 To:  <hwg-basics(at)hwg.org>
 References:  localhost computer nrc ntlworld ntlworld2 ntlworld3 hilma computer2 intrstar localhost2 localhost3 ntlworld4
  todo: View Thread, Original
At 07:25 29/05/02 +0100, Hilma wrote:
<snip/>
>You mean when i go to preferences --> edit --> font size, and discover that
>it was set up to 16 pts when i installed NS6 about a month ago, i ought to
>change that setting?!

Yes.

>I hadn't  really investigated my browser options (i never do, i assume the
>defaults - bad news).
>But, having changed that setting to 12pts, it is only *my* website, of about
>6 i use to check things, that has changed the font size.
>So everyone else must use physical sizes.

It depends. There are a few ways to define font sizes so that browser 
settings can't (easily) override them. They are very annoying though.

>Surely not the logical sizes that i quoted that can be defined in the CSS
>(small, xsmall etc) -
>I thought that that was the most-approved way of allowing the user to make
>his own choice (assuming s/he knows how, of course - unlike me)

That _should_ be the best way. However, browser implementations of this 
suck really really REALLY badly, so you have to avoid them :-(

> >What you
> > can do is define your text sizes using em. That way the text will be
> > displayed at size the user has it set to.
>Again, "em" is a physical size?

Ems are difficult to explain. If you set the font size to 1 em then the 
font size will be the same as the default browser font size. 2em will make 
it twice the size. Ems are the ultimate in relative font sizing :-)

Andrew

--
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