Re: CSS Font Sizes and Macs

----- Original Message -----
From: rudy limeback <r937(at)interlog.com>
To: Karin Ransdell <kransdell(at)squishedmosquito.com>;
<hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2000 1:37 PM
Subject: Re: CSS Font Sizes and Macs


> > Different font sizes have their place, and help the user
> > to visually prioritize the information on a page.
> > It's the same principle as using headlines.
>
> hi karin
>
> not to pick on you or anything, but what's wrong with <h1> through <h6>
for
> that purpose?

Oh, gosh, *that's* not being picked on.  You should see what I put up with
daily <eg>.

This is a good thread.  Thanks to the originator!

I, personally, have no problem with H1 thru Hwhatever and would love to go
on blissfully using it forever and ever (and DO because sometimes it's all
that WORKS), but I don't foresee that such will happen as "html" moves
beyond the PC monitor.  I remember when <P> would get the job done all by
its little self, now it's got to have a whole slew of modifers and closing
tags.  One of my all-time favorites was <center></center>, which now gets me
yelled at.  align="center", they all scream!  <sigh>

The bottom line is do what works and in fact, sometimes Hwhatever doesn't
(at least for me) because I need a bit more control over the size or
eight.  -- or -- I don't want a hard break between my sizes, which the H
tags enforce.  I might want it large, but not bold.  I might need it large
and bold, but on the same line with something else.  And on it goes.

Like I said, it's a matter of doing what works.  It seems that since every
project is different, "what works" might not be the same each time.  It's
good to know the options.

> and darrell, i hope i didn't come across as suggesting that you use "only
a
> larger font size"
>
> on the contrary, i was trying to say don't use a smaller size

But that means your only alternative is to go bigger when necessary.  Tell
that to the Yahoos and MSNs and AltaVistas and whoever else out there that
use varying font sizes.  There is only *so much* screen real estate to be
had.

> my advice is don't touch the font size at all -- let it default

<chuckle> Then why design?
It's difficult enough to get *very strictly formatted* pages to look the
same across browsers, resolutions, blahblahblah.  There's nothing more
horrendous than seeing your page in a browser's "default".  ACK!

"Default" between browsers is just too wide a chasm for some pages to
successfully (or even safely) jump.

If that's the case, let's just all go over the
Geocities/Yahoo/whoevertheyarethismonth and use their SiteBuilder tools.
Forget HTML, XHTML, XML, WAP, CSS, the W3C, or the whole lot of them ;-)

Or... <thoughtful pause>... we could just design everything in Flash and be
done with it <bwwahahaa>.

> use <h1> through <h6> where appropriate

Where appropriate.  See above.

> use <small> where appropriate

Microsoft's small verdana comes out at about 12px, very nice.  Netscape (a
problem I ran into this very morning) small verdana (on 4.08 standalone, at
least) comes out at about 8px.  YUCK.  "small" is not "small" is not "small"

> use <em> and <strong> where appropriate
>
> this will cover 95% of all your day-to-day needs, and color will do the
> rest

I guess my needs are different.  Or maybe I'm just anal.  I want to open my
page in a browser and know what it's going to look like, regardless of the
browser.

> plus, this strategy is *really* cross-browser   ;o)

Or a cop-out, depending on your view.

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