[thelist] percents or pixels?

[Mike Migurski]

>I'd also note the option in the second paragraph;
>
>"2. Use nothing. Do not specify font sizes at all, and let the browser's
>stylistic defaults and the visitor's preferences take care of the relative
>size relationships."

Unfortunately, this is great in theory but sucks in practice. For some
silly reason, MSFT decided that there were 96 pixels in an inch many years
ago, and now as a result of that, the default font size on IE/win is
*yooge*. I've tried leaving font sizes undefined several times, and
clients always complain that the fonts are too big. I tell them to turn
'em down, but it seems that changing the default font size is not an
easy-to-find option in IE/win, and changing the local font size isn't as
easy as command-plus or -minus like on a mac.

My general answer to this has just been to set everything at 12px and
leave it at that. Others seem to shrink their text so it looks good on a
PC, but then I, as a mac user, must blow every page up a few notches
because text comes through illegibly.

Unpopular suggestion: why *not* use hard pixel sizes? If the stylesheet is
set to "screen," the typical OS uses pixel-defined fonts in the 10 to 12
range, and pixels are the native display element of a computer screen, why
not just hard-size text to 10px or 12px and be done with it?

Aside: sometimes designing sites on a mac realy stinks. The standards
support and rendering consistency in IE5 and NN/Moz are *so good* that I
get lulled into a false complacency.

grrrr,
-mike.

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                   michal migurski     mike(at)saturn5.com
       http://www.saturn5.com/mike     AIM:migurski
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