Interview Questions

I want my page fonts to look the same everywhere as in...

CSS Interview Questions and Questions


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106. I want my page fonts to look the same everywhere as in...

I want my page fonts to look the same everywhere as in…
a) Why are my font sizes different in different browsers ?
b) Why are my font sizes different on different platforms ?


These questions represent the tip of the iceberg of a large topic about which whole essays have been written and a wide range of different views are held.
The WWW was originally devised to present the same content in different presentation situations and for a wide range of readers: on that basis, "looking the same" is not a design criterion, indeed different presentations would be expected to look different.
Some would have it that this original aim is no longer relevant, and that the purpose of web design is now to factor out the differences between display situations and put the author in control of the details of the presentation. Others point out that CSS was designed to give the reader a substantial amount of joint control over this process, and that this is desirable, for example to accommodate users with different visual acuity.
Reading of textual matter on a computer screen is quite a delicate business, what with the relatively coarse pixel structure of a computer display; even with a close knowledge of the display details, it isn't possible to achieve the detailed control that would be possible, say, on a printer. Whatever one's aims, the practical truth is that many of the efforts made to guarantee the precise result on the screen have seriously counterproductive side effects in a www situation.
The CSS specifications themselves recommend that authors should not use absolute size units in a situation where the properties of the display are unknown. There's a lot to be said for flexible design, that in an appropriate situation looks the way you had in mind, but still successfully conveys content and message in a wide range of other browsing situations.
And so, before looking at the technical detail of what can be specified, it's strongly suggested that you read some of those essays on web design, and reach your own conclusions as to the strengths and weaknesses of the medium, and how you can best exploit the strengths in a web environment, without falling foul of the weaknesses.

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