RE: Font sizes

I think we are getting away from the start of the discussion here.

The question was what font should be used in general, and the common thread
of the answer is that in general it is helpful to let the user decide what
font they like n their system and keep it, since readability of fonts is
partially determined by technology but substantially (I claimed) determined
by what people are used to.

By all means use style effects that help clarify the information structure -
this is why CSS was produced. The point is that assuming one kind of font or
other suits all users is a fallacy - so as you point out, follow
accessibiltiy guidelines for them. If people want bland uniformity they can
use Lynxand PINE (as I am right now) but providing content that transforms
gracefully to a more visual metaphor is helpful.

cheers

Charles McCN

On Tue, 28 Aug 2001, Jamie Mackay wrote:


  <snip>
  'I agree
  with the others...use default and let the users system choose the font'
  </snip>

  While I am all for creating accessible websites, I hear the sound of
  baby's going down the gurgler on this one.

  I think the ability to use different fonts is an important aesthetic
  consideration in the way I design webpages - though of course these
  should always be set as font-families with the default sans-serif as an
  option.

  As long as fonts are defined using CSS and sizes are defined at a
  reasonable size by ems or percentages I can't see any reason to discard
  them for the rather bland uniformaty of default fonts for everyone.

  Jamie Mackay


-- 
Charles McCathieNevile    http://www.w3.org/People/Charles  phone: +61 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative     http://www.w3.org/WAI    fax: +1 617 258 5999
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(or W3C INRIA, Route des Lucioles, BP 93, 06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France)

Received on Wednesday, 29 August 2001 04:24:43 UTC