Wednesday, August 28, 2002


Harping on Font Resizing Again .....

Harping on Font Resizing Again ....

I am going to harp on this point again.  And I'll even give an example of why you want to make your blog "size friendly" not a "size bitch".  Here's another reason why you want to do this:

You don't know where and how I'm reading!!!

After reading Russ's blog about how he's running again and dieting, I finally got off my lazy developer ass and picked up some new free weights (I'm not a big machine fan having had my first real exercise experience being with free weights and apparently being a creature of habit).  I now have a working but somewhat pathetic wi-fi system so I have wireless access up to my third floor where the exercise equipment is.  So, how do I lift weights, you ask?  With a laptop open and reading blogs while I do curls, etc.  What I do is this:

  1. Position the laptop near my free weights on a table dedicated to this.
  2. Set my fonts to the largest possible i.e. View => Text Size => Largest
  3. Go to my blog.
  4. Run down my blog roll link by link accessing blogs.
  5. If the blog text comes up large enough to read from a distance, I read it. 
  6. If not?  I just backup and try the next.

So, while I somewhat applaud the position that Paolo takes that he's a designer and should be able to set his fonts however he chooses, I take the position that "I'm a reader and I'll read what I can see".  And, as someone who not only has read the ADA, but also has built ADA compliant websites for use by disabled folk, I think it's (pun intended) shortsighted to assume that because you like 10 point Times Roman, everyone will.  We're not talking about complex layouts here ... It's just words in a row going left to right, top to bottom.  Keep your sidebar and design elements however you want them -- all I really care about is the text flow (most sidebar links aren't all that followed at least based on my off the cuff, simple ass research).

Coming tomorrow ... A list of "size friendly" blogs I read and "size bitch" blogs I skipped right over.

[The FuzzyBlog!]
5:56:19 PM    trackback []     Articulate [] 

I could really go for one of these in the USA.

Reconfigurable, Modular Dream Home [Slashdot]


5:50:29 PM    trackback []     Articulate [] 

Interesting weblog disclaimer. [Paolo Valdemarin: Paolo's Weblog]
12:00:25 PM    trackback []     Articulate []