[Biodevelopers] Re: Fonts

[Martin Kucej]

> The two look quite different on Mac IE5.1. The face in your image
> looks like Courier, whereas on my Mac (which has Courier) it has
> defaulted to Times.

Thanks, I feared that it can be a problem with Mac.

> 1. Use css to specify your fonts.

I do.

> 2. Specify your font sizes in pixels in your style sheet.

I do.

font-size: 12px;
color:#003300;
font-family: Courier New;
text-decoration: underline;
font-weight: normal;

I don't quite understand, why your MacIE5 choosed Times instead.
Are you sure you don't have some defaulted font settings?

> 3. Use one of the following fonts: Verdana or Arial, which are
> present on both Windows and Mac (you've more or less had it with
> Unix/Linux). If you must use Courier (as it appears you have here) you
> need to specify alternative names (Courier, "Courier New") in your
> style sheet.

I can't use Arial, I need a font with fixed width, otherwise I could
not guarantee that the 125x125 box would not "swell".

> In addition, you use an iFrame, which is not supported by Netscape and
> older Mac browsers and in any case gives you a fixed size which
> results in problems if the text doesn't fit. You are better to use a
> css div with a border.

No, I have to guarantee 125x125, I can't change user's layout in any
case. That's why I use iframe. It is HTML4 standard. Older browsers
ignore iframe, and for them, there is a javascript external file
included. It works for NN4 on Win and Linux too. I have no idea if
it works on Mac.

> If you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to learn some css
> eg: http://richinstyle.com/
> http://www.alistapart.com/stories/fear/fear1.html
> http://www.westciv.com/style_master/academy/css_tutorial/

Thanks for the useful links.

> And ignore the advice about not supporting pre-2000 browsers. The
> bioinformatics community has the oldest browsers anywhere. You need to
> check that your work looks reasonable, at least, on the 5-year old
> Netscape 4.x. and good on IE5 PC.

It's worse. I don't do it for bioinformaticists, I'm doing it for
Life scientists. :-) Netscape 3 is not an exception, but I'm not
going to support it. It looks reasonable, however, I tested it.

Regards,
martin