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Subject:Re: Website readability From:Roy Anderson <royanderson -at- IBM -dot- NET> Date:Wed, 19 Aug 1998 03:21:34 -0400
What an entertaining post! Thank you very much.
As a "know-it-all male donkey of a web designer", I plead guilty
to creating web sites which use small, clean sans serif text against
light, attractive backgrounds. (Smile.) Because of differences in
browsers, monitors, resolutions, fonts, it's impossible to please
everyone. I now have proof that any attempt to design the "perfect
web site" would be a futile enterprise. Thanks again. (Smile.)
It's an accepted web design practice to specify different colors for
visited/unvisited web links. Research conducted by many web denizens
reveals that more readers suffer from fuzzy short-term memory than
from fuzzy eyesight. Different link colors enable memory-impaired
readers to quickly determine if they previously visited a link.
Apparently, you are unaware of the fact that modern browsers provide
you with significant capability to customize your personal web viewing
environment. You can specify your choice of fonts, font sizes, font
colors, visited/unvisited link colors, and background colors. You can
set preferences to override the fonts, colors, and backgrounds of any
web site you visit. I suggest exploring your browser's "preferences"
or "options" section at you earliest convenience. You'll be delighted
by what you find.
I, too, favored large serif fonts for years but then opted for a pair
of lineless bifocal glasses. Eureka! "My goodness, I can see, Ma! It's
a miracle." Using eyeglasses is preferable to reading online text with
the aid of a magnifying glass.
Good luck!
Walker, Arlen P wrote:
>
> "What's the best color, font (serif, or sans-serif), size for text to
> be easily readable on the web?"
>
> Dark text on a light background. Sans-serif is to be preferred. DON'T
> CHANGE THE COLORS OF LINKING TEXT! (Yes, I intended to shout that.)
>
> People who browse the web have vision problems. All of us do, just some are
> more serious than others. Browsers give the user a chance to use technology
> to overcome poor eyesight by enlarging text. Then some know-it-all male
> donkey of a web designer comes along and insists the text be too small for
> comfortable reading.
>
> Remember, people are different. If you print it too small on paper, your
> reader can reach for a magnifying glass. The browser functions as the
> reader's built-in automatic magnifying glass for web documents. Just who
> the blazes is a web designer to take that magnifier away, anyway?
>
--------------------------- SNIP --------------------------------------
>
> Have fun,
> Arlen
> Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
> DNRC 224
>
> Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
> ----------------------------------------------
