Patrick Lauke wrote: > Also, compare the default size of 1em in browsers with the default size of > all other OS text (on a plain vanilla install of WinXP, for instance, 100% > in IE 6 looks about 20% larger than any of the text you find in the Start > menu, or even the browser's own menus). So, you can't really say that > that's what the user wants, because the default size of text in the browser > does not match the size of what they'd normally set system wide...
Smaller menu/system text makes sense: "There is good reason for toolbar fonts to be smaller than page text. Users quickly become familiar with menu items and what they represent, becoming routine targets to click to achieve quick action. Web page content isn't at all like that, mostly being unfamiliar and more voluminous, generally requiring some attention and focus to assimilate. Larger than menu page text facilitates this, while smaller menu fonts save some space to allot to the content, and some CPU cycles, by needing to draw to smaller screen areas, thus making the OS seem faster than it otherwise might." http://members.ij.net/mrmazda/auth/defaultsize.html#note1 As to the actual size a user expects, it isn't really so simple. M$ has provided multiple means for users to increase the size the system uses for e.g. menus. Both 98 & XP & IIRC W2K use 8pt by default, which is 10.67px at the standard 96 DPI setting. When the user needs larger, he can go into display properties settings advanced and choose "large fonts", changing the DPI to 120, which moves those 8pt fonts up to 13px. Futher, he can go into display properties appearance, and choose alternate text sizes large or xlarge, moving text size up to 10pt or 12pt respectively, and this independant of the DPI setting. So, a user might be using large fonts and 10pt together, for an actual size of 17px, or large and 12pt together, for an actual size of 20px. When web pages do not set text sizes, IE dutifully enlarges page text size according to these settings. When they don't, none of the user's attempts to change his environment are applied to web page content, which can easily wind up significantly smaller than system text. This won't happen when web page content does respect the browser setting, giving the user exactly what he needs, wants, and/or expects. App content is different from system controls, and app content is what we are looking at in web browser windows. Since M$ is not my normal OS, but used only for web matters, what other apps do is not something I'm very familiar with there. But, I just booted my kid's W98 puter and opened OpenOffice 1.1, which apparently had yet to be opened there. I began a new document, and what do I find as the initial font but Times New Roman @ 12pt, which is standard PICA typewriter 10 pitch? That computes to a printed (high-resolution) text size of .1667", or about 4.23 mm tall. Contrast that to 12px author-specified text on a typical 17" diagonal medium resolution 1024x768 display at 2.77 mm tall, or a typical 21" diagonal high resolution 1600x1200 display at 2.23 mm tall <http://members.ij.net/mrmazda/auth/pixelsize2.html>. Tiny, but higher quality, front page newspaper copy (St. Petersburg Times) is about 3 mm tall. Why are so many web authors insistent that 12px at low resolution is a good size, when 16px on 15" @ 800x600 and 4.11 mm tall or on 17" @ 1024x768 and 3.69 mm tall are both smaller and poorer quality than standard typewriter copy? -- "Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made." John 1:3 NIV Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://members.ij.net/mrmazda/auth/ ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
