[thelist] Text size advice & freebie

[Shirley Kaiser, SKDesigns]

At 07:46 PM 6/10/2002, you typed:
>My labor of love The Healers - http://www.thehealers.org  - has
>launched.  I followed what I thought was the best path on text size and
>specified 13 px in the external  CSS stylesheet.  Looked good in the
>browsers I have.  Now I am told it is unreadable in NN4.7 -- always the
>bear.  Any advice?  Do I switch to % and solve that problem?  Or do I stick
>with what I have?  Any elegant solutions I am too punchy to remember?

Well, there are lots of possibilities. Here are a few different approaches:

1. With my Brainstorms and Raves site
<http://www.brainstormsandraves.com/  > I put all the font information for
the content into a second @import style sheet where Netscape 4 browsers
won't see it. Then they'll get whatever their default is, so you might
consider that. That's a pretty simple solution. Your site may not look
identical in that browser but it ought to be more readable then.

If you haven't got a clue what I'm talking about, let me know. :-)

2. There are also JavaScript browser sniffers so you could serve Netscape 4
users a separate style sheet just for them, too.

3. You might also check out todd Fahrner's tutorial at A List Apart for
another approach, this one using font-size keywords
<http://www.alistapart.com/stories/sizematters/>. The New York Public
Library uses that approach and explains how they use it, too, which gives
some good insight, too, if you're interested:
<http://www.nypl.org/styleguide/css/opensource.html>

Too many choices, huh? <grin> HTH, Bonnie! And best wishes with your new site!

Warmly,
Shirley

--
Shirley E. Kaiser, M.A.,  SKDesigns  mailto:skaiser1 at skdesigns.com
Website Design, Development      http://www.skdesigns.com/
WebsiteTips: Design Resources  http://www.websitetips.com/
Brainstorms and Raves  http://www.brainstormsandraves.com/
WaSP Steering Committee       http://www.webstandards.org/