[WEB4LIB] re: point sizes vs. absolute sizes in CSS

[Kevin Fredrick]

I've run into the same thing before with netscape. What I did was create a default CSS with the absolute sizes that looked nice in IE. Then I created an overlay CSS for Netscape Browsers. Just bump the size up one level. After adding some PHP and SSI code to the header of each page:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/library.css" type="text/css">
<!--#include virtual="/interface/css/css.php" -->

When viewed from Netscape the <!--#include virtual="/interface/css/css.php" --> turns into 
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/ns_library.css" type="text/css">

Since the CSS files are loaded in the order they are rendered the ns_library.css elements overload the elements in the previous file. Thus adjusting the size so they look nice in netscape too. Also by having a link to the default stylesheet the pages look fine in your favorite WYSIWYG html editor.

check out: http://www.lib.ipfw.edu/ to see an example.

Kevin Fredrick
Software Technician
Walter E. Helmke Library
Indiana University - Purdue University Fort Wayne
219-481-5445


>>> <Jeff.Kuntzman at UCHSC.edu> 06/22/01 06:10PM >>>
(sorry if this has been covered before)
I am struggling with converting a large website from
font tags to CSS, and ran up against a problem with
Netscape and specifying absolute sizes in CSS.
Previous messages noted that it's better to use font-size:
x-small or font-size: xx-small - as opposed to point sizes.
The problem for me is that NS4 and IE
render this style of css differently; in fact xx-small
is so small as to be illegible in Netscape.

There is a pretty good explanation of the problem at 
http://www.alistapart.com/stories/fear4/4.html 

I need to render 8pt Helvetica/Arial (that's a campus 
standard). There are a still lot of Netscape users at our
campus. If anyone has a solution (other than, don't use 
text that small!) please let me know. I just found out 
Netscape on the Mac isn't at all happy with stylesheets 
that specify small point size.

This is always a great list, by the way!
Jeff Kuntzman
Internet Librarian
Univ. Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denison Library
jeff.kuntzman at uchsc.edu