Friday, December 16, 2005

A Question and a Photo

My question


... has to do with font-size because I had a new reader observe that it is small for him. This is a tricky issue to which I try to be sensitive, for I am forever adjusting font-size when I am reading blogs. Because I use a high res monitor, fonts that appear right to some are a tad on the diminutive side for me. Fortunately, changing the font size on the fly is very easy in Firefox. Therefore, I don't mind terribly much, but I am quite aware of the issue.


The problem is this: what might seem big on an older 800x600 monitor might be rather smallish on my 1440x900 resolution screen. So, what I tried to do was to set a size that was just barely correct on my monitor. Happily, it seemed bigger but not too big on Cuppa's 1024x768 monitor. I have also chosen what is supposed to be a readable sans serif font — Verdana. (A sans serif font doesn't have curls on the letters and is supposedly easier to read on a monitor than a serif font.) I have also padded the space between lines and also the letters to a slight degree in order to improve readability.


Finally to the question: how does the font (text size) on this blog work for you?




Lights in the Park


When I took the house pictures (seen on the previous blog) the other night, I tried a few others too. Because night photos are tricky, especially in the biting cold, and sans tripod, none were particularly noteworthy: not even this one which I offer to you regardless ... in the spirit of the season.


ottawa christmas lights


 

12 comments:

Vickie said...

You have done a great job with the making your blog very readable. I have Multiple Sclerosis and visual problems
is one of the major issues I deal with. I am very impressed with what you have done here to make it easier.

Iona said...

Hey,

With me, the font shows just fine. I have Firefox as a browser and it shows the text as Verdana 10px, which is big enough to read normally.

Love the holiday pictures! Christmas lights always make for nice photos. And they're not bad for 'sans' tripod! But I would have to say that with a tripod and 1-2 sec exposure, the result would be great(er) :)

Are you going to try your luck at photographying fireworks on Dec 31st?
That also takes some practice!

Rainypete said...

The fonsts seem fine here, I have no problems reading it.

As for the picture, that's the beauty of web use. Many a photo not fit to print looks excellent on the web.

-epm said...

Perfectly readable on my hi-res Mac monitor (1680 X 1050) and a standard 1024 X 768 IBM ThinkPad.

Are you using a specific size or a relative size for the font? Are you using px, em or some other unit for specifying the size?

-epm said...

iona raises an interesting point: what browser was having the too-small problem?

I'm using Firefox on both Mac and Win. I've had formatting problems on IE with pages that displayed just fine in Firefox.

Melodee said...

Font is fine here.

Bonita said...

I'm not sure what a font is, but everything is very readable to me. The dark background and strong letters make it easy to read.

Valerie - Still Riding Forward said...

Font is good by me.

Photos were good, too.

Looking pretty classy!

Edie said...

Your blog is one of the most customized I've run across in Blogger, and looks fine to me. How did you do all the fancy graphical colors? I like the winter photos, by the way. All we have is stiff grass.

The MacBean Gene said...

Of course my only being able to have access to dial up may have something to do with your font not being as clear to me as others.
Sorry I'm not literate enough to understand things like Foxfire, etc. It's that senior thing, came to computers late.

In any case your taking the touble to "check it out" is appreciated.

That night photo is nice.

karla said...

Looks perfect on my 1162 x 864 screen resolution using IE (we're so microsoft junkies here....but hey, they keep my hubby in business). I prefer smaller fonts, and just ADORE this christmas template in particular.

karla said...

p.s. I commemorate you on choosing Verdana (a web developers font of choice).