At 02:34 PM 7/22/03 +1200, you wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jul 2003 21:08:01 -0400, Vicki Rosenzweig vr@redbird.org gave utterance to the following:
At 12:37 PM 7/22/03 +1200, Richard Grevers wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jul 2003 23:38:06 +0200, Erik Zachte e.p.zachte@chello.nl gave utterance to the following:
What about giving the reader more control over things like font type and size ?
This is really not so hard to do. A special page could offer choices in font size, style and colour. The choices would be stored in a cookie (ok, a small minority will not benefit from this). Settings are applied through javascript after the page has loaded.
No thank you. Javascript is a security risk; Wikipedia doesn't need it and shouldn't ask me to use it.
So, minimal overhead for the server, it just includes a static js file. Direct feedback for the user, click a different size and presto! view the results. These formatting options might be added to the preferences page.
There's really no need to do any of the above. One gives the reader full control over font size and face simply by not specifying them in the HTML or stylesheet. They are then rendered in the user's preferred default which they set in their browser.
Most of us set defaults for common things like "visited link", not for unusual ones like "Wikipedia talk page".
Huh? In IE, Tools, Internet options, click the "fonts" button on the first panel: "The fonts you select here are displayed on Web pages and documents which do not have a specified text font" - it's generic as can be. And I have 13pt Trebuchet selected in every browser.
We're not just discussing fonts, though. The current questions include how to best use different background colors to distinguish between *kinds of Wikipedia page*. "Default font for everything" is common; specific-to-a-single-Website things will be set by few people.