Tim Arnold wrote:
While I generally agree with your statement Philip, I think that using it as an absolute law for font sizing might be giving users more credit for having any idea what their browser or system default font size is or how to change it. Isn't your argument really more saying that browser and computer manufacturers know better than designers, rather than that users know better?
No, but I understand your perspective. In an ideal world, it would be possible for a browser to "know" whether : (a) a user had explicitly set a default font size (because he or she didn't like the default that comes with the browser/OS) (b) was happy with the browser/OS default, and therefore just left it as it came out of the box, or (c) was desperately unhappy with the default, but had no idea how to override it, and was therefore ecstatic when he or she came upon a web site that set a default that matched his or her preferences or expectations. But this is far from an ideal world, and in real life no-one other than the user him/herself could possibly know which (if any) of those three obtain. So we, as web designers, have to make a conscious choice : should we assume that most users fall into categories (a) and (b), or that they fall into category (c). My suggestion (that a designer should /not/ specify a default font size (other than 100% or 1em)) is based on my assumption that most users fall into categories (a) and (b). If I am wrong, and most users fall into category (c), then setting another default would conceivable make sense, except that we still cannot know whether "the average user" finds his/her browser/OS default font size too large or too small, and if so, by what amount. So, on balance, even in the case of the majority of users falling into category (c), we can still do no better than to not set a default font size at all, or to set at at 100% or 1em. The defence rests, m'lud. Philip Taylor ______________________________________________________________________ css-discuss [css-d@lists.css-discuss.org] http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ List policies -- http://css-discuss.org/policies.html Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt/
