midlandi

I have been criticized on a number of occasion for having the fonts too small on my sites. Personally I like them and think any increase would distort their layout. However I have seen a number of sites offer a font size adjusters. Was wondering if you think an adjuster is a useful feature and would help retain more visitors?
Does anyone here use it on their site?
Can anyone recommend software for thsi?

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thegeek

Can you allow the browser to control the size of your fonts? I use em or % when setting the font sizes. This way, those hard of seeing are able to view your site by adjusting the browser settings.

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Alan

If you use CSS in your site you are able to dynamically alter the font size of defined areas, or all of the page, using client side scripting routines (for example javascript). All fonts should be variable anyway using % or ems, this will help you meet the WAI criteria. Can't say whether this will keep visitors, but it wouldn't drive them away.

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mars guitars

An interesting question. In the UK there's a big drive for goverment (and, to a lesser degree, corporate) sites to be "accessible" - this is a legal requirement under disability discrimination law. Oten such sites include the facility to not only change text size for those with poor eyesight, but also have text that can be easily read aloud by computer so that blind people can use the site. An important aspect in the latter is proper naming of images and navigation. Can you imagine how irritaing it would be if you were blind or partially sighted and your text reader hept saying "image1" or "pic0916_sml"? Although most websites don't consider such things, it is worth considering for sites aimed at (or used by) older people - the grey pound is very plentiful - or partially-sighted people.

Anyway, I suspect that is nothing to do with the original question! The most fundemetal thing is to not used fixed font sizeds, so that the average user can change font size by using their browser's 'text size' facility.

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Before anyone asks... "the grey pound" = "the gray dollar"!? I mean the high disposable income of older people. They're the fastest-growing group of internet users!

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OldWelshGuy

Calling a CSS file will make your site 100% font accessible as it allows those users who need to , to use their own local CSS set up as they want./ There are various types of disability with regard sight and one mans meat is very much anothers poison. It is conrast which also causes problems.

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WebTalkVB

What website is it on? I would run a poll and see what the overall view is - that way you know how much it will benifit you. Well this is my opinion anyway .

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jumpenjuhosaphat

I don't beleive that you even need to call a CSS file.....On my browser (Firefox), I have the option to use a custom CSS file on every page I visit, which overrides the CSS file that the site uses. I have never used it, so I might be wrong, but that was my impression. I think that I agree, you will find that most people have issues with colors or contrasts that make it harder to read your page, which is a harder issue to address if you don't understand the problem....Font size can be fixed relatively easily.

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WebTalkVB

This is only needed if it is a commercial website, e.g. a website which is selling a product. Because otherwise you are discriminating against people with disabilities. At the end of day, it is better the government has brought in this polict, it means that they will have a bigger customer base.

Sorry midlandi if I took the discussion of board a little I just wanted to clear this up incase you thought it was a legal requirement or something .

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Alan

Correction here webtalk, since the Part 3 of the DDA was legislated in 1993 it is made clear the it is not only commercial websites, indeed public bodies, charities, indeed any information being made available in the public domain. For further information you may wish to refer to the DDA or the Code of Practice.

To return to Midlandi's original post, if the font is too small to be read, and this could be someone with reasonable eyesight not necessarily impared, then in order to keep them on your site adjustments need to be made, and yes this could be the addition of a mechanism to adjust the size of the font, or even the colour.

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WebTalkVB

[quote=Alan;84510]Correction here webtalk, since the Part 3 of the DDA was legislated in 1993 it is made clear the it is not only commercial websites, indeed public bodies, charities, indeed any information being made available in the public domain. For further information you may wish to refer to the DDA or the Code of Practice.[quote]

Yes, a little wrong, but it isn't personal websites that need to be changed, my solicitor checked this out for me a while back.

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pdfmania

What is the standard of font size of a web site (if any)? I usually use 10pt or 11pt and 12-16pt for heading. Is that okay? I used 17" monitor with 1240x1208 res. Is that okay or need to fix to any size? Any suggestion please?

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