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I hate how Safari on iPad does not have proper Cookie handling… The only solution is to permanently use Safari in “private mode”, but it has some limitations (y

I hate how Safari on iPad does not have proper Cookie handling… The only solution is to permanently use Safari in “private mode”, but it has some limitations (you cannot remember your browsing history, and you can’t set a default Font size for example.) Firefox on iOS can do this, but you can’t set a Font size at all. So many websites (like Hacker News) are nearly impossible to read on an iPad.

nagyf 5y ago
Why does HN have such a bad font size? I always have to set it to 120% otherwise it's so small I can't even read it on my big ultrawide monitor. This is the only website which I have to scale up on every computer...
- gruez 5y ago
  Do you have eyesight issues and/or a high dpi display? I'm using a ~105 ppi display and it works fine with regular font size.
  - jlarocco 5y ago
    I do have a high DPI display, and HN is ridiculously tiny without manually overriding, because it's setting text size in pixels instead of points, for no good reason. It doesn't make any sense. View source shows: line-height:12pt; height:10px; Why use device independent units for line-height, but not the text itself?
    - gruez 5y ago
      >setting text size in pixels instead of points "px" in css doesn't correspond to literal pixels on the display. >By definition, this is the physical size of a single pixel at a pixel density of 96 DPI, located an arm's length away from the viewer's eyes. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/CSS_pixel https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/CSS_pixel
      - jlarocco 5y ago
        Thank you. It seems "px" is really the worst of both worlds, then. It's not device independent like "pt", it's not what most people expect it to be (one device pixel), and there's subjective "wiggle room" in what it actually means.
        gruez 5y ago
        >It's not device independent like "pt", it's not what most people expect it to be (one device pixel), and there's subjective "wiggle room" in what it actually means. This seems to also be incorrect. px and pt are both absolute units, and 1.33px == 1pt. If you want relative units you need to use something like em. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/CSS/Building_blocks/Values_and_units#lengths https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/CSS/Building_...
        dmos62 5y ago
        em and rem are relative to properties on other nodes in the document's CSS hierarchy; they're not relative to some screen-size specific metric. I've not studied the topic in any depth, but I believe that an adaptive ruleset would just use CSS media queries (use this font size when viewport width is more than something). That is what Bootstrap does. Or, use viewport-relative units like vw, vh, vmin, vmax, but I doubt that would work well.
        gruez 5y ago
        >they're not relative to some screen-size specific metric. The fundamental problem here is that the browser can only adjust for device pixel density and not other variables that affect visibility (eg. the viewer's visual acuity or the viewing distance). That said, using absolute units is still the best choice for text size, considering the other relative units (eg. relative to viewport size) is worse. >I've not studied the topic in any depth, but I believe that an adaptive ruleset would just use CSS media queries (use this font size when viewport width is more than something). HN has this. See the /* mobile device */ section in news.css.
  - adamc 5y ago
    Might be an age issue. When you get older, small font sizes are problematic. It's rude of sites to use them, IMO.
    - tomc1985 5y ago
      Personally I hate large font sizes. What do they think I am, 5?
      - q-rews 5y ago
        It depends on how large. 16/18px is a good default for body copy. IFTTT is just taking the piss, I visit it at 70% or less.
  - jrochkind1 5y ago
    My "eyesight issue" is being older than 40 ha! It'll happen to you too youngster!
  - OJFord 5y ago
    I have a 123ppi display, normal is ok but I have it zoomed out to 80 or 90%. People are different, so it's good to have font size and zoom options. Some can go bigger, some can go smaller. I use 80% on a lot of sites, and an extension called 'Zoom Page WE' to remember the settings.
- input_sh 5y ago
  Just 120? I do 150% each time. Font size is set to really low (titles on the homepage are 10px, comments are even smaller). I can read it fine at 100%, it just requires a bit more mental struggle in the age where font sizes are usually in 16/18px range.
- dmos62 5y ago
  My 1440p monitor works ok with HN's defaults.
- q-rews 5y ago
  Because HN is not "designed" as much as it's just been written by dinosaurs who visit it via Lynx. My browser is currently at 150% and I'm basically a millennial. The smallest font on this page is 9px, that's just ludicrous. I mean just open the CSS file and judge for yourself.
- beltsazar 5y ago
  In addition to zooming in to 110%, I also apply this CSS for increasing the line spacing and decreasing the number of words per line: div.comment { line-height: 1.5 } td { max-width: 700px; } It improves the readability a lot for me.
- spideymans 5y ago
  Gosh, I'm happy I'm not the only one. I have 20/20 vision, yet I have to turn up the HN font size on all my devices. It's the only site I've had to do this.
Angostura 5y ago
What would proper cookie handling look like for you, in this context? What would you like to be able to do?
- herodotus 5y ago
  Safari used to have a feature where you could delete all cookies except for ones you had explicitly marked to keep. So, for example, I might keep ones like my bank login name and my amazon history, but very easily remove everything else. I used this all the time. Even better would be the option to delete all but selected cookies every time I closed Safari.
  - DavideNL 5y ago
    I assume you are talking about macOS, not iOS. On macOS, there's also an app to achieve that, called "Cookie": https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/cookie/id1473091386?l=en&mt=12 https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/cookie/id1473091386?l=en&mt=12 On iOS however, Apple's walled garden...
- DavideNL 5y ago
  I want to - specify which websites may store cookies/cache. All websites not specified can not store anything (and thus not track me), and all data for these websites is deleted once i close the tab - i want to remember all my history I can do this in Firefox on macOS (with some container extensions, can’t remember the names now)
  - jonnytran 5y ago
    I started using the DuckDuckGo app on iOS to do exactly this. You can choose to "fireproof" any site you're on, adding it to a list of sites that's immune to clearing all data. I don't think it has a history feature at all though.
    - DavideNL 5y ago
      That’s pretty cool, i’ll check it out. Unfortunately you can’t change ‘Font size’ at all in the Duckduckgo browser.
swiley 5y ago
Am I the only one that likes the default HN size? I'm currently reading it on a Pinephone with unit scaling and it's pretty readable.

nagyf 5y ago

Why does HN have such a bad font size? I always have to set it to 120% otherwise it's so small I can't even read it on my big ultrawide monitor. This is the only website which I have to scale up on every computer...

gruez 5y ago
Do you have eyesight issues and/or a high dpi display? I'm using a ~105 ppi display and it works fine with regular font size.
- jlarocco 5y ago
  I do have a high DPI display, and HN is ridiculously tiny without manually overriding, because it's setting text size in pixels instead of points, for no good reason. It doesn't make any sense. View source shows: line-height:12pt; height:10px; Why use device independent units for line-height, but not the text itself?
  - gruez 5y ago
    >setting text size in pixels instead of points "px" in css doesn't correspond to literal pixels on the display. >By definition, this is the physical size of a single pixel at a pixel density of 96 DPI, located an arm's length away from the viewer's eyes. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/CSS_pixel https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/CSS_pixel
    - jlarocco 5y ago
      Thank you. It seems "px" is really the worst of both worlds, then. It's not device independent like "pt", it's not what most people expect it to be (one device pixel), and there's subjective "wiggle room" in what it actually means.
      - gruez 5y ago
        >It's not device independent like "pt", it's not what most people expect it to be (one device pixel), and there's subjective "wiggle room" in what it actually means. This seems to also be incorrect. px and pt are both absolute units, and 1.33px == 1pt. If you want relative units you need to use something like em. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/CSS/Building_blocks/Values_and_units#lengths https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/CSS/Building_...
        dmos62 5y ago
        em and rem are relative to properties on other nodes in the document's CSS hierarchy; they're not relative to some screen-size specific metric. I've not studied the topic in any depth, but I believe that an adaptive ruleset would just use CSS media queries (use this font size when viewport width is more than something). That is what Bootstrap does. Or, use viewport-relative units like vw, vh, vmin, vmax, but I doubt that would work well.
        gruez 5y ago
        >they're not relative to some screen-size specific metric. The fundamental problem here is that the browser can only adjust for device pixel density and not other variables that affect visibility (eg. the viewer's visual acuity or the viewing distance). That said, using absolute units is still the best choice for text size, considering the other relative units (eg. relative to viewport size) is worse. >I've not studied the topic in any depth, but I believe that an adaptive ruleset would just use CSS media queries (use this font size when viewport width is more than something). HN has this. See the /* mobile device */ section in news.css.
- adamc 5y ago
  Might be an age issue. When you get older, small font sizes are problematic. It's rude of sites to use them, IMO.
  - tomc1985 5y ago
    Personally I hate large font sizes. What do they think I am, 5?
    - q-rews 5y ago
      It depends on how large. 16/18px is a good default for body copy. IFTTT is just taking the piss, I visit it at 70% or less.
- jrochkind1 5y ago
  My "eyesight issue" is being older than 40 ha! It'll happen to you too youngster!
- OJFord 5y ago
  I have a 123ppi display, normal is ok but I have it zoomed out to 80 or 90%. People are different, so it's good to have font size and zoom options. Some can go bigger, some can go smaller. I use 80% on a lot of sites, and an extension called 'Zoom Page WE' to remember the settings.
input_sh 5y ago
Just 120? I do 150% each time. Font size is set to really low (titles on the homepage are 10px, comments are even smaller). I can read it fine at 100%, it just requires a bit more mental struggle in the age where font sizes are usually in 16/18px range.
dmos62 5y ago
My 1440p monitor works ok with HN's defaults.
q-rews 5y ago
Because HN is not "designed" as much as it's just been written by dinosaurs who visit it via Lynx. My browser is currently at 150% and I'm basically a millennial. The smallest font on this page is 9px, that's just ludicrous. I mean just open the CSS file and judge for yourself.
beltsazar 5y ago
In addition to zooming in to 110%, I also apply this CSS for increasing the line spacing and decreasing the number of words per line: div.comment { line-height: 1.5 } td { max-width: 700px; } It improves the readability a lot for me.
spideymans 5y ago
Gosh, I'm happy I'm not the only one. I have 20/20 vision, yet I have to turn up the HN font size on all my devices. It's the only site I've had to do this.

Angostura 5y ago

What would proper cookie handling look like for you, in this context? What would you like to be able to do?

herodotus 5y ago
Safari used to have a feature where you could delete all cookies except for ones you had explicitly marked to keep. So, for example, I might keep ones like my bank login name and my amazon history, but very easily remove everything else. I used this all the time. Even better would be the option to delete all but selected cookies every time I closed Safari.
- DavideNL 5y ago
  I assume you are talking about macOS, not iOS. On macOS, there's also an app to achieve that, called "Cookie": https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/cookie/id1473091386?l=en&mt=12 https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/cookie/id1473091386?l=en&mt=12 On iOS however, Apple's walled garden...
DavideNL 5y ago
I want to - specify which websites may store cookies/cache. All websites not specified can not store anything (and thus not track me), and all data for these websites is deleted once i close the tab - i want to remember all my history I can do this in Firefox on macOS (with some container extensions, can’t remember the names now)
- jonnytran 5y ago
  I started using the DuckDuckGo app on iOS to do exactly this. You can choose to "fireproof" any site you're on, adding it to a list of sites that's immune to clearing all data. I don't think it has a history feature at all though.
  - DavideNL 5y ago
    That’s pretty cool, i’ll check it out. Unfortunately you can’t change ‘Font size’ at all in the Duckduckgo browser.

swiley 5y ago

Am I the only one that likes the default HN size? I'm currently reading it on a Pinephone with unit scaling and it's pretty readable.