Re: Cross-platform e-mail text size problems

isw <isw@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <1iix2sl.vn50nji448hN%jamiekg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
jamiekg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Jamie Kahn Genet) wrote:

isw <isw@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Specifically, between Macs and Win boxes.

I carry on e-mail correspondence with several Win users, most of whom
just don't know enough about text sizes or fonts to be useful. Further,
I started using Macs in 1988 and haven't looked back -- or used a Win
box for more than a few weeks -- since, so I basically have no
understanding at all of how Win deals with e-mail text.

Perhaps complicating the issue is the fact that some of them use a mail
client on Windows, and some use web mail -- gmail, yahoo, aol.

For most of the messages sent to me, the text looks just fine, but there
are some oddities:

I use Verdana 11 to compose messages in Mail. One fellow told me it
showed up for him as Times New Roman 12.

He claims to use Arial 12 for his mail; his text shows up here as Arial
16.

I dragged some text from MT-NW into a message, as Monaco 12; he said it
showed up as Monaco 6 -- essentially unreadable.

Messages from another one of the people in the group show up here as
Arial 9, which is nearly too tiny for me to read.

So here's the question: How are font choices and text sizes handled with
cross-platform e-mail? I'm trying to understand what's happening so I
can fix it, and more importantly, so I can help my Win-using friends to
fix it.

I'm using Mail on OS X 10.4.11, BTW.

Can anyone shed any light on the matter?

thx

Isaac

And this is why plain text is, in the final analysis, simply more
useful, reliable, and consistent. Unless it's advertising there is no
good reason to use anything but plain text IMO. HTML email is FINE (yes,
I've softened my stance in the last few years), I simply don't see how
it's appropriate for personal email.

It's dull. Do you send birthday cards with no illustrations, printed in
black ink using 12 point Courier?

Isaac

Hardly the same thing. An e-card would actually be a good candidate for
HTML email. Better IMO would be a simple jpeg (e.g. Apple's classy
iCards), but if you want a busy card with animations, etc then HTML is
the way to go, and I never tried to suggest otherwise in this thread.

However if you're just writing a simple letter, where is the advantage
in dressing up your text with styles and using fonts your recipient may
or may not have? Plus your message will render differently unless
they're using he same email client as you.
Another problem I've often encountered is newbies sending me HTML emails
in tiny font sizes which may have been readable on their screen at it's
resolution, but are far too small on my screen.

It simply isn't worth the hassle IMO.

Regards,
Jamie Kahn Genet
--
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
.

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