Re: [REQ]: Advice concerning difficult to view web site.

I am very familiar with the problem that you describe. There are ways of
changing the font size for some things in Windows, but you still can't
really change the default font size that you refer to (as far as I know).
You can modify a few things from the Display Properties dialog box,
appearance tab, but none of them really get at the main font setting.

I use both Macs and PCs and I have to say that the browsers on PCs handle
fonts better. I have seen some very illegible text on Macs that look fine on
PCs, and it isn't just the dpi difference. The operating system itself
handles fonts differently. In general, very small text on PC browsers looks
much better than very small text on Mac browsers. (In case you're wondering,
I use Windows 98, NT and 2000, and the Macs we have are OS 8 and 8.51.)

The only real solution that I have seen as a web developer is to avoid very
small text. Most of my developing is done on a PC, so I sometimes forget to
take my own advice, but I don't know of a better way right now. I guess I
could experiment more with some of the style sheet font settings (%, px, pt,
em, etc.) One or more of the style sheet options may provide a solution that
the <small> tag doesn't, as far as visual appearance.

When I find the time (sic) I may experiment with that myself. Be sure and
post any findings of your own

Paul Bohman
Web Accessibility in Mind (WebAIM)
www.webaim.org


----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Andrew Nassy <nassy@mac.com>
To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2000 7:51 PM
Subject: [REQ]: Advice concerning difficult to view web site.


Hi,

I am seeking a little advice on a problem I have viewing a web site with a
macintosh web browser. The problem I am having occurs when I visit a page on
e-trades web site [1] with ms ie 4.5. I cannot view the material on the page
because the text is too small for me to read. The default setting for my
font size is Largest. To work arround the problem I downloaded the page and
removed the all the <small> </small> tags. This improved the situation and
made the text barely readable, but at least now I could read the text. The
new problem now was all the relative links did not work.

I mentioned the problem by e-mail to e-Trade and provided the details of
what I did to try and work around the problem.

The issue as I understand it has to do with the dpi the monitor is set to
display, or something similar to that. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Anyway, Wintel computers I think are set to a default 96dpi while Macintosh
computers use 72dpi. This may translate into trouble when web masters assume
a default setting of 96dpi.

I think Wintel users can change their dpi in the Monitors control panel. I
assume changing it from the default (small fonts?) to a custom setting of 72
dpi should reproduce the problem, correct? I am unaware of anyway to change
the dpi setting on a macintosh computer (without probably having to use any
3rd party software).

I referred them to w3 [2] as a source for more information on the problem.
In response, they suggested that the problem did not lie with their code,
and that I should increase the size of my font in my web browser. I rewrote
them and mentioned that that did not solve the problem and explained the
possible source of the problem to them again. They then responded with a
message indicating I should: (1) visit the online help center for
instructions on how to navigate, or (2) call a toll free number for help. I
plan to call the toll free number.

Should there not be a resolution to the problem, short of closing my
account, is their anything someone here can suggest I can do to view the
page or similar pages?

Thanks for any suggestions in advance.





[1]
<URI:http://www.etrade.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/appLogic+ResearchStock?cmenu=HStoc
ksA>
[2] <URI:http://www.w3.org/>


--
Mark Andrew Nassy, <URI:mailto:nassy@mac.com>

Received on Wednesday, 15 March 2000 23:07:09 UTC