[thelist] Font Size

[Tom Dell'Aringa]

--- Bertilo Wennergren <bertilow at gmx.net> wrote:
> Saila, Craig:
>
> >> From: Bertilo Wennergren [mailto:bertilow at gmx.net]
>
> >> Except that you should never ever set the basic font size to
> >> anything else than 100% or 1em.
>
> > Hrm?! That sounds like saying you should never underline text
> that is
> > not a link. A good rule, but hardly one that is set in stone.
>
> > I can think of many justifiable reasons to set your base
> font-size
> > smaller than 100%. What are you reasons against this?
>
> You have no idea what the base font size in the user browser is,
> except
> that it most probably is the size that he himself finds the most
> comfortable one for basic text (otherwise he would have picked
> something
> else). Thus setting it to something smaller means setting it to
> something that is to small for the reader. Why would you want text
> size
> that is too small?
>
> 100% means "just right for basic text", per definition.

But, you are making the assumption the USER set their text size. You
cannot make that assumption for everyone. MOST people leave it as
installed. I certainly test my sites in multiple browsers with
multiple font sizes to make sure it works. This is a much better
technique than making an assumption that isn't necessarily true.

> You should always work form the basic assumption that 100%
> font-size is
> perfect for the basic text, and then set non-basic text (headings,
> footnotes...) to something larger or (in extreme cases) something
> slightly smaller than that.

I would tend to disagree for the reasons above.

Tom

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