When Browsing, Turn The Wheel

A few days ago two friends told me the font on my webdesign site’s top menu was too small. I checked it out tonight and changed it. Apparently my friends both use the highest resolution they can so small fonts become tiny.

This reminded me that using font px values in css files is a mistake. It’s best to use em values. When we use the em values they can be controlled by the browser, and the mouse wheel.

To change font size with the mouse wheel hold down the control-key and turn the wheel one way and then the other. If the page is designed with em values, the font will get larger and smaller depending on which way you turn the wheel. A well-designed site should give this visitor-controlled feature to web surfers.

If you don’t have a mouse wheel, don’t despair. You can do the same thing in Internet Explorer by clicking on “View” at the top of your screen, then “Text Size”. I like to design for the medium text size. Site visitors can go larger or smaller from there.