Re: Issue 1: Font-weight and headings

Peter Fraterdeus <peterf@dol.com> wrote:
> Can't we do better than to perpetuate the disastrous use of Times
> as a default font? For online reading, 'Palatino/Book Antiqua' is
> far more legible, don't you think? Seems to me it's just as
> ubiquitous these days, no?

That's not the point -- we're not *endorsing* the default
style sheet used by Navigator and IE -- we just want to
describe it as accurately as possible.  Todd is right,
the browsers use Times 12 point as a default out of the box.
That's the default value.  Debate about what it *should*
be can come later.

Once we identify where the defaults are declared and what
they are, it's that much easier to write a style sheet
that expresses your wishes for the display of your pages.

I don't have strong opinions about Times vs. Palatino vs. Book
Antiqua (I find all three equally hard to read on screen).  If
you would like to make your pages use Palatino, you can do so
through style sheets.  And I can have an ! important declaration
in my own user style sheet that will save me from seeing it
when I'm viewing on-screen (I prefer Verdana now).


> Don't you think Times is way too narrow to suit low res screens? 
> After all, if we're talking about setting a good example ;-)

Setting a good example could be the next project -- after
we decide what the defaults *ARE*, then we can go about writing
a new library style that we all endorse as what the defaults
*SHOULD BE* through new style sheets.

But for right now, I think we should concentrate on describing
default behavior.
-- 
E. Stephen Mack <estephen@emf.net>    http://www.emf.net/~estephen/

Received on Monday, 28 July 1997 01:27:51 UTC