3 ms·

For normal text. Headings and other content that needs to stand out should be sized relative to the main text, but why don't website (and ebook) publishers/des

For normal text. Headings and other content that needs to stand out should be sized relative to the main text, but why don't website (and ebook) publishers/designers leave the main body text as default, always? Why make users have to consider adjusting font size separately on every website they visit? Fonts, too. Everyone has their favorite fonts, but the font a web designer likes has no bearing on what's best or easiest to read for the user. Are they developing a website as an art piece, or to publish articles for real people (not bots) to read? Ancillary styling for text that needs to stand out, or text that isn't part of the main flow, can be whatever. But I don't even agree with shrinking footnotes anymore. There's no lack of page real estate at the bottom; there's no reason to shrink "back matter" except to imply that you don't expect anyone to ever read any of it (footnotes, index, bibliography, etc. in long-form blogs or books).

MatthiasPortzel 3y ago
99.99% of all websites visits are from people who can’t or don’t know how to change their browser font. Saying ‘don’t set a font’ is equivalent to saying ‘use Times New Roman.’ When the web was created, HTML was meant to semantically describe text documents. But that isn’t an accurate description of the web today. Today, websites have complete control over their own visual appearance.
- harshreality 3y ago
  Websites' default font and size for readable text content can be set under the css for body and then not overridden in more specific tags or classes, so the UA can easily override that without breaking all other areas that need custom fonts and sizes like navigation. Users not knowing how to change their font or font size is not an excuse for website designers to choose fonts and font sizes whimsically, since they rarely base their decisions on good quality readability data. Browsers and other UAs need to step up and provide meaningful interfaces to choose those defaults at install time, and make it easy (and easily discoverable) to adjust.

MatthiasPortzel 3y ago

99.99% of all websites visits are from people who can’t or don’t know how to change their browser font. Saying ‘don’t set a font’ is equivalent to saying ‘use Times New Roman.’ When the web was created, HTML was meant to semantically describe text documents. But that isn’t an accurate description of the web today. Today, websites have complete control over their own visual appearance.

harshreality 3y ago
Websites' default font and size for readable text content can be set under the css for body and then not overridden in more specific tags or classes, so the UA can easily override that without breaking all other areas that need custom fonts and sizes like navigation. Users not knowing how to change their font or font size is not an excuse for website designers to choose fonts and font sizes whimsically, since they rarely base their decisions on good quality readability data. Browsers and other UAs need to step up and provide meaningful interfaces to choose those defaults at install time, and make it easy (and easily discoverable) to adjust.