In traditional HTML you can select only one of 8 Font Sizes with
the FONT Size Tag. You have less control over the location of your
text strings; they simply follow one after the other. With the
introduction of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in version 3.2 and
later Browsers, we suddenly acquired complete control of our Font
Size and Text String location down to the pixel level. This is
accomplished by embedding a text string within a DIV or SPAN tag
and applying a style. An example would look like:
<div id=OObj1
STYLE="position:absolute;left:138;top:254;width:510;height;font-
size:45px;">
A text example using CSS.
</div>
Great! you say. Now I have complete control over my page layout.
The example at is4fig2
illustrates a common problem with Cascading Style sheets when a
conflict with system font settings in Windows is introduced. When
viewed with your System Fonts set to small in the Control Panel
Display, this page will appear as designed. When viewed with
System Fonts set to Large, the text Objects on this page will overlap.
The reason is that the Windows Display Font setting will override
the HTML setting. A Font set to Size 2 will appear at size 3 or 4
when large Fonts are set in a viewers Control Panel. Although the
Top Left corner and width of the text string will be correct, the extra
size of the Fonts will increase the number lines in the text block and
increase the size of each line so that the block of text will run further
down the page.
To correct this problem, reduce the number of separate Text Objects
on the page, avoid putting Text Objects adjacent to each other or
design and test your pages with Large Fonts selected in the
Windows Control Panel.
System Fonts can be changed in the Control Panel on Win 95, Win
98 and Win NT operating systems. Select the Display Properties,
Settings, Font Size, Small or Large Fonts. Depending upon your
Graphic Display adapter card, you may need to reboot your
computer before the new font setting will take effect.
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