[css-d] Questions about fonts
I have a container that I am making from css. I have a few questions about fonts: 1. I put in the style for the container title font-size: 18M; What exactly does M do? The font size was REALLY HUGE. I would say around 160pt. 2. When making font sizes, what is the best guideline for sizes? especially when you have no idea about the screen size of the page visitor? 3. What is the best font to use for readability? and is there a list of easily readable fonts out there somewhere? __ 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/
Re: [css-d] Questions about fonts
On 2010/06/09 12:17 (GMT-0400) Andy B. composed: I have a container that I am making from css. I have a few questions about fonts: 1. I put in the style for the container title font-size: 18M; What exactly does M do? The font size was REALLY HUGE. I would say around 160pt. Simplest version: 1em = size of browser default, commonly 16px/12pt Full version: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/syndata.html#em-width 2. When making font sizes, what is the best guideline for sizes? especially when you have no idea about the screen size of the page visitor? The best is let the visitor choose. For the base size (setting on the body, most main content paragraphs), anything other than 100% of the user's choice is rude, telling the visitor he screwed up choosing the best size for his own environment. Further reading: http://www.dev-archive.net/articles/font-analogy.html http://tobyinkster.co.uk/article/web-fonts/ http://webdesignconferencing.com/design/the-web-is-not-paper/ http://www.w3.org/2003/07/30-font-size http://www.useit.com/alertbox/designmistakes.html http://fm.no-ip.com/Auth/defaultsize.html 3. What is the best font to use for readability? and is there a list of easily readable fonts out there somewhere? Again, let the visitors see that which they chose for main content, setting your choice for logos, headings and highlights, leaving the visitors to be pleased to see their own choices dominate. If you think sans-serif better than serif (or vice versa) as the primary, then set the generic sans-serif (or serif), which will leave which sans-serif/serif up to the visitor. http://tinyurl.com/33e5kcb See also: http://css-discuss.incutio.com/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearchsearch=fontsgo=Go -- The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive. Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ __ 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/
Re: [css-d] Questions about fonts
Andy B. wrote: 1. I put in the style for the container title font-size: 18M; What exactly does M do? The font size was REALLY HUGE. I would say around 160pt. I'm curious: what browser behaves like that? Any browser that works according to CSS recommendations ignores the declaration font-size: 18M as the value is malformed (syntactically incorrect). Even IE in quirks mode seems to ignore it. If some browser tried to make some intelligent guess, wouldn't it guess that M (= m) stands for meter, the standard unit of length? If you instead actually used 18EM and not 18M, then I would normally expect to see something even larger than 160pt. And I would ask why you did that. -- Yucca, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/ __ 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/
Re: [css-d] Questions about fonts
On Wed, 9 Jun 2010, Andy B. wrote: I have a container that I am making from css. I have a few questions about fonts: 1. I put in the style for the container title font-size: 18M; What exactly does M do? The font size was REALLY HUGE. I would say around 160pt. There is no unit M. Your browser may be interpreting it as em. 2. When making font sizes, what is the best guideline for sizes? especially when you have no idea about the screen size of the page visitor? Use relative sizes: 100% (or 1em) for the main body; 200% (or 2em) for H1, etc.. 3. What is the best font to use for readability? and is there a list of easily readable fonts out there somewhere? Let the user decide; use the user's preferred font (i.e., don't specify a font). -- Chris F.A. Johnson, http://cfajohnson.com Author: Pro Bash Programming: Scripting the GNU/Linux Shell (2009, Apress) Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress) __ 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/
Re: [css-d] Questions about fonts
Chris F.A. Johnson wrote: On Wed, 9 Jun 2010, Andy B. wrote: 3. What is the best font to use for readability? and is there a list of easily readable fonts out there somewhere? Let the user decide; use the user's preferred font (i.e., don't specify a font). The vast majority of users, and some author's, do not know a font from a flagpole. Give it your best shot. A safe call for serif: font: 100% Georgia, serif; A safe call for sans: font: 100% 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; Mac users get Helvetica Neue. PC users get Arial. Best, ~d -- http://chelseacreekstudio.com/ __ 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/
Re: [css-d] Questions about fonts
On 6/9/10 12:50 PM, David Laakso wrote: Chris F.A. Johnson wrote: On Wed, 9 Jun 2010, Andy B. wrote: 3. What is the best font to use for readability? and is there a list of easily readable fonts out there somewhere? Let the user decide; use the user's preferred font (i.e., don't specify a font). The vast majority of users, and some author's, do not know a font from a flagpole. Give it your best shot. A safe call for serif: font: 100% Georgia, serif; A safe call for sans: font: 100% 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; Mac users get Helvetica Neue. PC users get Arial. I heartily agree with this last suggestion. After studying typography and messing with various so-called font stacks, I found that these stacks give great results in the vast majority of cases. About the only thing I might add is a larger line-height than normal. I like something in the range of 1.4 - 1.5, but it depends on the content--the line length in particular. So you might use, say: font: 100%/1.4 Georgia, serif; You won't go far wrong following David L's advice, IMHO. Cordially, David #321 -- __ 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/
