[Bug admin|web|git/11934] web pages: small fonts in CSS

["carlos at systemhalted dot org" <sourceware-bugzilla at sourceware dot org>]

http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=11934

--- Comment #3 from Carlos O'Donell <carlos at systemhalted dot org> 2012-02-08 14:28:08 UTC ---
(In reply to comment #2)
> (In reply to comment #1)
> > The currently website uses `px' to specify exact font sizes in relation to the
> > page layout. We expect users to use browsers scaling support or assistive
> > technology to make the page view bigger.
> 
> Well, it would be very annoying to have to scale the page each time one goes to
> a new site, because each site hardcodes the font size in inconsistent ways.
> Moreover not all browsers are able to easily enlarge the page without
> reformatting it (so that one doesn't have to do a horizontal scroll after
> reading each line). See Nokia's browser for the N900, for instance.

Scaling pages is the best way to get consistently readable text, you need to
scale the layout elements along with the text size to maintain readability. 

Issues of accessibility are important, and I would be happy to guided someone
interested in helping to identify and fix accessibility issues with the current
page.

> > Using `px' and scaling makes the page
> > *much* more readable than using "em" and font size changes. The latter can
> > suffer from improper layout and difficult to read enlarged text, while the
> > former results in a uniformly scaled website that is easy to scroll and read.
> 
> This is plainly wrong. The "em" (or percentage if you prefer) is a relative
> font size, so that if you scale the font, every font should be scaled in the
> same proportion.

I didn't say "em" was *not* scaled, I said `px' and page scaling is in my
opinion *much* more readable. Why? Scaling fonts does not scale the layout
elements that contain the fonts, often resulting in overlapping text that is
unreadable. On device with small screens you need to scale the entire rendered
view and pan to read (or detect the device and rendering a completely different
page).

> > We don't plan to change this any time soon, but if you still have problems
> > reading the page I'd be more than happy to work with you on the problem e.g.
> > configuring your browser or other technology.
> 
> Actually the current settings now appear to be OK (at least consistent with my
> default choices).

I'm glad that things have gotten better! If they ever get worse, please file
another issue.

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