topic Re: When Posting in Community Site Feedback

When Posting

Midnight_Caller — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:19:13 GMT

When I am posting a new topic or replying to a topic the text size is to small in:
Subject field
main Message field
Pleas see Screen Shots
Screen Shot 1 is of my Forum
Screen Shot 2 is of your Forum
Screen Shot 3 is of my Forum & your Forum

Re: When Posting

Midnight_Caller — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:51:33 GMT

This may make the point a bit better, the text on your forum is smaller and compressed.
Pleas see Screen Shots
Screen Shot 1 is of my Forum
Screen Shot 2 is of your Forum
Screen Shot 3 is of my Forum & your Forum

Re: When Posting

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:16:31 GMT

Isn't part of it because of the font used here?
I think it might be a slightly smaller size, but when they changed the branding they also changed the font.
It looks as if yous uses something like Verdana, while the font here looks more like Times New Roman.
(Verdana was created to make it easy to read on screen I think, while TNR was designed to be used for printed documents IIRC)

Re: When Posting

chillypenguin — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:00:10 GMT

The sample on the left is using a "Fixed Width Font", whereas these forums use a "Proportional Font".

Re: When Posting

jelv — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:09:54 GMT

Look at the i in size - that's not a fixed width font!

Re: When Posting

chillypenguin — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:22:25 GMT

True.

Quote
"Not free from Faults, nor yet too vain to mend."

It's just spaced out a little more.

Re: When Posting

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:42:16 GMT

I'm certain we've had this conversation before...
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,67143.msg537874.html#msg537874

I recalled the new font incorrectly, but the basic premise is the same.
The default font is Verdana, which was designed to be readable at smaller sizes, whereas Arial was designed to be readable at larger sizes.
Arial came first, before monitors were able to cope with the sorts of resolutions we see in use these days, hence the resolutions used when Arial was designed were such that it was easily readable on screen. (Remember fixed width fonts such as Courier
As resolutions became higher and users crammed more into their desktop, Verdana was created so that the smaller words would be easier to read.

For some reason, the marketing bods at PN decided that they preferred the old-fashioned-harder-to-read font, rather than the much easier on the eye Verdana.
So these days on this site we can fit more words on the screen, but they are harder to read. I bet I'm not the only one who doesn't come here so much since the redesign for fear of getting headache from straining to read the text.

As you may have guessed, I prefer the default Verdana font. I think its much easier to read (certainly is on my set-up anyway) but who am I to tell a graphic designer or marketeer that they are wrong?
PS. The last couple of lines are in Verdana just like the entire board used to be - doesn't it look better?

Re: When Posting

artificer — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:00:15 GMT

can't you change the font within your own system? i can. i'm reading this comfortably in the font of my choice - luxi sans.

Re: When Posting

Midnight_Caller — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:17:32 GMT

Quote from: James_G
As you may have guessed, I prefer the default Verdana font. I think its much easier to read (certainly is on my set-up anyway) but who am I to tell a graphic designer or marketeer that they are wrong?
PS. The last couple of lines are in Verdana just like the entire board used to be - doesn't it look better?

Yes it does look better
artificer, No I can not do that!

Re: When Posting

James — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:24:31 GMT

What browser are you using Gary?
Was it IE7?

Re: When Posting

Midnight_Caller — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:34:50 GMT

No Internet Explorer v6.
[Edit]
With Firefox Your Forum and My Forum.
Pleas see Screen Shots
Screen Shot 1 is of my Forum
Screen Shot 2 is of your Forum
Screen Shot 3 is of my Forum & your Forum

Re: When Posting

geewizz — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:35:27 GMT

I use Opera and changed the minimum font size to 14 in Tools > Preferences > Advanced.
The other trick to use if you don't want to make such a sweeping change is to hold down the Ctrl key and use the scroll wheel on the mouse to increase and decrease the font sizes in a window. If you don't have a scroll wheel, use the + and - keys with the Ctrl key depressed.

Re: When Posting

artificer — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:20:48 GMT

in firefox, edit/preferences/content allows you to choose the font you want and the default size. under advanced, you can specify minimum size.