Where did you get 14px as the "recommended size for general readability"?
I've been creating websites since 1993 and never recall seeing that size mentioned. Browser defaults usually equal the operating system default which is on Windows 16px and on Macs prior to OS X generally 12px (Macs with their desktop publishing focus used 1px = 1pt so you could actually hold a ruler to the screen to measure but I digress). Having been concerned with accessibility I've been using ems or percentages since 2001 but then I've never been that concerned if there is a slight difference between one browser and another and I don't expect the web to be like print. As far as I'm concerned it the end result is attractive does a pixel or two difference between two browser really matter? After all people will only see the site in their browser of choice unless it is broken in that browser or they are a web professional who has a reason to check in multiple browsers. Cheryl D Wise -----Original Message----- From: Ron Koster This is actually very frustrating to me (now). For all these many past years, I've had my base font size set at 14px -- this was, for the longest time, the recommended size (in px) for general readability. Since being on this list, I've learned that this recommendation is no longer valid, and percentages (specifically 100% for one's base font) are the recommended way to go instead of px. However, when I was doing my font sizing using px, I could very easily size my text, headings, etc. with specific whole, rounded numbers (9px, 14px, 23px, 37px, etc.) no problem at all, but from what you've pointed out, if I start doing things using the far more vague percentages values, then things will simply not quite look as I might expect/hope from one platform/browser to another. So this is all rather ironic: in order to get things to look right, I have to do them in the wrong way (using px), but in order to do them in the right way (using %), then I'll never be sure that it actually looks right (in fact, I'm virtually guaranteed that things will look wrong for some people). Arrrrrgh...! Ron :/ Woof?... http://www.Psymon.com Ach, du Leni!... http://www.Riefenstahl.org Hmm... http://www.Imaginary-Friend.ca ______________________________________________________________________ css-discuss [cs...@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/ ______________________________________________________________________ css-discuss [cs...@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/
