Dear Patty, Peter, Sophie, John, Bill and others,

I've read with great interest the previous emails about font size problems
on our website.

The 'font size problem' is the biggest challenge for a website builder to
overcome.  The problem started with the browser war between Netscape and IE.
Next to the war, the operating systems (Mac vs. Windows and others) are also
a problem.   Every operating system handles his fonts differently, a Mac
uses 72dpi to display fonts while windows uses 96dpi.  This difference is
shows in the browser, IE will render the fonts big, using the font system of
the OS, Netscape renders the fonts using his own build-in system.  This
means that fonts always look different.   Resolution isn't such a problem,
only when you try to put 1280x1024 on a 14 inch screen, this will look very
small.

My challenge is to bring a site that looks the same on IE on Macintosh or
Windows, Netscape on Macintosh or Windows, or any alternative browser that
is around like Opera, OmniWeb, iCap, etc...  I succeeded pretty well in this
challenge (see below for screenshots).   But still some persons will have
trouble.  Then I haven't talked about the user changing his default
preferences to a small or a bigger font.

When visitors are coming to the site, my server checks for a operating
system and a browser, when he has received this information he returns the
page with the corresponding style sheet which has the font size included.
I've many style sheets on the server to accommodate as many different OS and
browsers as possible.

What I suggest is to get an overview of the situation:
I've created a page with different font sizes and a browser type check.
Here is the URL: http://www.conchology.be/test/

What you need to do is go to that page, make a screenshot and copy-past the
browser type in an email.  Send everything to me: [log in to unmask]

When I receive this information, I'll put it online and try to figure out
how to help the people which have problems viewing the website.  This will
give me also an idee on how the site looks on your computers.

On that page, you will find also screenshots of my computers, currently only
Mac, because the PC are not available for the moment.

It would be great if everybody could do the exercise, I'm looking forward to
receive the information in the hope to find a solution for Peter and Patty,
and future visitors.


greetings

Philippe
http://www.conchology.be/



> From: Patty Jansen <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: Conchologists of America List <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 15:19:39 +1000
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: text size
>
> Dear Philippe, Peter and others,
>
> I have the same problem, which is no doubt related to monitor resolution
> (mine 1280 x 1024) and something like that the font size on the page is
> probably defined as an absolute rather than a relative value. Like Peter,
> all other sites look OK. Yes, there is probably a way to get around it
> (change the screen resolution or increase the font size in your browser),
> but honestly, I can't be bothered just for one site.
>
> Conchology is a great site, but this needs to be fixed because this is a
> serious turn-off for all those people like Peter and me who use a high
> screen resolution. It may be our fault for using this resolution, but if we
> are pointing fingers, isn't it the case that the 'customer' is always right
> ;-)?
>
> Patty
> Dr. Patty Jansen
>
> Bookshop: http://www.booksofnature.com
> Publishing and info site: http://www.capricornica.com
>
> Books of Nature
> P.O. Box 345
> Lindfield NSW 2070
> Australia
>
> phone/fax: 02 9415 8098 international: +61 2 9415 8098
>
> E-mail: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]