Re: Font sizes on Windows and Linux
- From: "David E. Ross" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:28:19 -0800
Frank Steinmetzger wrote:
Hello Group
On my website I used to have Tahoma 8pt defined in my CSS styles. That gives
me the "normal" font Windows uses everywhere in its dialogues.
However, on Linux things seem to be different. If I want a font equal in
size to Windows' Tahoma 8pt, I need to set 11 as font size. This has the
result that text on my website is too small for Linux systems at the
moment.
Could you tell me what I need to do in order to get the same font size on
both systems?
TIA
Don't force any font size! Some of us (my wife, for example) want all
fonts larger than usual because their eyes are getting old. Having
experimented with various sizes, I set my browser's default to 13pt
(Georgia, a serif font) as being the most readable.
As others indicated, different browsers, different operating systems,
and different platforms show point sizes differently. That's why it is
better to use relative sizing (em or %) instead of absolute sizing (pt).
Further, sizing should only be specified for text that is NOT part of
the content body. That is, larger sizes may be specified for titles and
section headers while smaller sizes may be specified for footnotes and
copyright notices. But the main body of content should be at the size
the user finds most readable and has thus set as his or her default.
Don't force any font face! According to
<http://www.codestyle.org/css/font-family/sampler-CombinedResults.shtml>,
more than 6% of Windows users do not have Tahoma installed. Almost 28%
of Mac users do not have Tahoma. Tahoma does not even appear in that
site's UNIX survey (which also covers Linux); I infer that fewer than 9%
of users of UNIX-type systems have Tahoma.
If you really like Tahoma (I prefer Verdana for sans-serif), use
something in your CSS such as
Body {font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif}
This will cause Tahoma to be used if it is available. Otherwise, the
user's specified default sans-serif font will be used. Without the
generic "sans-serif" in the CSS, a user without Tahoma will see your
text in his or her general default, which might be a serif, cursive, or
fantasy font.
--
David E. Ross
<http://www.rossde.com/>
Natural foods can be harmful: Look at all the
people who die of natural causes.
.
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- From: Frank Steinmetzger
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