A hello & font size question

What setting do most people have

[ollym]

Hello

My name is Oliver Meakings. I have been running my site for a few years now, using FP Express and then FP. Recently I decided to add a membership database to my site but thought my best bet was to start from scratch, learn html and work from there. That's where this takes me. So far searching these forums has helped me greatly, although I only have one page so far!

My first Q to the board is does anyone know what font size setting most people have in IE. I assumed most people had "smaller" selected because this is what my setting is. However recently I have come to the conclusion that perhaps it is medium. Switching it over myself I have found a lot of sites seem to have over-sized fonts and look funny, but maybe it's something I need to get used to.

I was wondering if anyone could advise?

[tedster]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, ollym

Font size is an often discussed topic here. A site search on "font size" returns over 400 threads, and that's just the beginning!

I've never seen numbers on what the most common settings are, but I assume you are correct that smaller and medium are both quite widely used. And as you've seen, many websites do not consider this very well in their design.

Many people feel that best practice is to set the font size in a relative way - using ems or percents, rather than points or pixels. That allows the user's settings to render the page according to their personal preference. Others prefer to heavily control the font size that is displayed, sometimes to the detriment of visitors with sub-par vision.

At any rate, there is a wealth of conversation here on the topic - and I wish you the best in sorting the best choice for your own site.

[macrost]

Welcome Oliver! Well I know that generally if you go with anything smaller than 9pt a Mac machine wont read it. I always have my resolution set to 1024 x 768.
Mac

[SlyGuy]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com], Oliver.

As Tedster pointed out in his reply, it's best not to present text to a visitor in a forced manner. Let text render to a user prefrences.

Myself, I use the medium setting at work and the smaller setting at home (I use a laptop there). I can only assume that the medium setting is popular, since I believe it is the default.

Here's a link to the Site Search [searchengineworld.com] feature.

- Chad

[tbear]

Hello, good evening and welcome, Oliver.
Just checked and my font settings are at medium (first time I've looked in 6 years. LOL).
Good luck with the learning. The information here is top quality at all levels of understanding.
You might consider moving your bed closer to the 'puter (or vice versa), as this place is very addictive!
:+)