Re: Cross-platform e-mail text size problems

In article <isw-270DEC.14444122062008@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
isw <isw@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <uce-B3F6AE.08250822062008@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Gregory Weston <uce@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <isw-1E018E.20162321062008@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
isw <isw@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

As I have repeatedly said, I'm not complaining about it; I'm merely
trying to understand it. Meanwhile, instead of offering information that
would help me to figure out what's going on, folks who don't like
variety in typefaces and fonts are trying to convince me that I should
not like them either.

But you *got* information to help you understand it and rejected it.

Remember this?

|| The longer answer is that the presentation of a piece of e-mail is
|| completely, utterly, entirely, 100% up to the receiver's mail client.
|| The sender can suggest, but nothing more.
|
| That doesn't explain why my friend's mss sent at 12 point, display for
| me at 16 point.

Well, yes, in fact it *does* explain that. The explanation is that "the
presentation of a piece of e-mail is ... up to the receiver's mail
client."

If it is indeed "up to the receiver's mail client", why do I see 16
point text where the message explicitly calls for 12 point?

Because that's what your client has decided to show you based on some
unknown function of your settings, the declarations in the received
message, the content of the message, the capabilities of your system and
the barometric pressure at the closest airport at the time your OS was
installed.

Or are you saying that *if* I tell my mail client to deliver text only,
*and* I tell it specifically what typeface and size to use, *then* it is
"up to the receiver's mail client"?

I'm saying it's up to the receiver's client. Always. Period. It gets to
do whatever it wants. There's no specification that says a mail client
must comply with the declarations in the received mail (because there's
no practical way such a requirement could be imposed). There's not even
anything that says it has to be in lockstep with what the user has set
in their own viewing preferences. It may for example go through some
convoluted algorithm between what the user has specified for their
preferences and what the sender has specified for the individual message
to come up with a "reasonable" compromise for some definition of
reasonable.

--
"Harry?" Ron's voice was a mere whisper. "Do you smell something ... burning?"
- Harry Potter and the Odor of the Phoenix
.

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