Re: Font tag (was RE: Slashdot: How should Govt sites be designed?)

Ben Morris wrote:

> [Response]If the user chooses a background color on thier own, then they are
> assuming responsibility for the presentation of content.  If you are an
> advanced enough user to set the background color, you can set your font
> color and link colors as well, and override the settings on a page.

If this problem occurs, it is because the author failed to set all the
colours when they set one.  Whilst an advanced user could to an
!important override on the background, the normal user is likely to do
a simple override that is no more significant than the browser's built
in default and will be overridden by a background in the document.

> [Response]<font size="2"> is completely adjustable on the user's end;
> certainly more so that using <p style="font-size: 12pt">.

Neither of these is scalable, at least on NS 4.  They will both cause
problems.  The correct way with font is to use signed sizes to indicate
relative sizes, and the correct way with style (besides indirecting the
style) is to use em units.

> [Response] By not using font tags you face a risk as well, that the user
> will have style sheets turned off or have an older browser.  In a
> risk/reward context, I would rather make the site more palletable for those
> (I believe 10% or so) who have an older browser, rather than the few
> (probably less than 10%) who choose to change their default settings.

If I override, it is because poor design has made the font too small or
the colour contrast insufficient.  I'd hope a good browser would override
both styles and font elements.  I've certainly had to override colours
(implemented with font, I think) on one major UK corporate site because
their designer had done successively lighter background shades on successive
tabs, to the point where I couldn't read the FAQ tab).  I then continued 
browsing for a while with colours disabled.

Received on Friday, 22 December 2000 13:20:50 UTC