[thelist] Small Type

Hassan Schroeder hassan at webtuitive.com
Thu Jan 3 09:14:09 CST 2002


DESCHAMPS Stéphane DvSI/SICoR responded to:
> 
> > Why not use relative sized fonts and give the user an easy way to
> > change the base text size? It can be done server- or client-side,
> > and users love being given that control.

with: 

> I'm not sure so many users think in terms of their browser being able to
> displmay bigger fonts. I wouldn't count on it actually.

Absolutely true -- that's why I put a control *on the page* that
sets a site-wide preference for font size -- nothing to do with  
browser preference settings at all. Once they see it, they use it.

I hadn't seen this implemented anywhere other than the intranet 
portal project I'm involved with, but just yesterday happened to 
follow a link to the International Herald Tribune, and turns out 
they do the same thing - look at the footer area of the articles 
on www.iht.com.

The IHT just scales the article text, though; my own implementation 
scales all the text elements proportionally, by using JSP variables
for class attribute values in the style sheet.

If you're so inclined, you can also use this approach to fine-tune
font-family, font-size, and other display properties based on user 
platform ... 

FWIW,
-- 
H*
Hassan Schroeder ----------------------------- hassan at webtuitive.com 
Webtuitive Design ===  (+1) 408-938-0567   === http://webtuitive.com

    -- creating dynamic Web sites and applications since 1994 --




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