235417 - ofcom.org.uk - Fonts are unreadably small

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Tech Evangelism Graveyard :: English Other, defect)

Description

[Graham Anderson]

User-Agent:       
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040206 Firefox/0.8

If you go to www.ofcom.org.uk then all of the fonts are too small to read. If
you open the same page in IE6 or Opera on WinXP, the fonts are legible. Fonts
are also legible using the default settings in Safari on OS X Panther. Looks
like a Mozilla-specific problem with Ofcom's CSS?

NB: Ofcom is the UK Government's telecoms and media regulator - equivalent of
the FCC in the USA.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. go to www.ofcom.gov.uk
2.  try to read text on page - you need to "Increase font size" to make it legible

Comment 1

[Graham Anderson]

Attachment: Screen grab of page rendered in Mozilla, with illegible text

Comment 2

[Graham Anderson]

Attachment: Page rendered in IE6, with legible text

Comment 3

[Felix Miata]

summary changed to conform to tech evang bug writing guidelines

If you examine the css for the page http://www.ofcom.org.uk/images/main_style
you can see it wasn't intended for anyone with less than 95th percentile eyesight:
	font-size:0.9em;
	font-size:100%;
	font-size:105%;
	font-size:110%;
	font-size:120%; 
	font-size:125%;
	font-size:60%;
	font-size:60%;
	font-size:60%;
	font-size:60%;
	font-size:60%;
	font-size:60%;
	font-size:60%;
	font-size:60%;
	font-size:65%;
	font-size:65%;
	font-size:65%;
	font-size:65%;
	font-size:65%;
	font-size:65%;
	font-size:65%;
	font-size:65%;
	font-size:65%;
	font-size:65%;
	font-size:65%;
	font-size:65%;
	font-size:65%;
	font-size:65%;
	font-size:65%;
	font-size:65%;	
	font-size:65%;	
	font-size:65%;	
	font-size:65%;	
	font-size:65%;	
	font-size:65%;	
	font-size:65%;	
	font-size:65%;	
	font-size:65%;	
	font-size:65%;	
	font-size:65%;	
	font-size:65%;	
	font-size:65%;	
	font-size:65%;	
	font-size:70%;
	font-size:70%;
	font-size:70%;
	font-size:70%;
	font-size:70%;
	font-size:70%;
	font-size:70%;
	font-size:70%;
	font-size:70%;
	font-size:85%; 
	font-size:95%;
	font-size:97%; 

The actual size you'll see depends on your pref setting. If it displays bigger
text in IE, it's because your IE default is bigger than your Mozilla pref. For
me, the text on the page is much larger than in either of your screenshots.

Reporter, have you contacted the webmaster about this?

Comment 4

[Graham Anderson]

Sorry about the reporting format. I have sent a comment to the Ofcom webmaster,
but I have yet to receive an acknowledgement or reply. My comment included a
link to this bug in bugzilla, in the hope that they communicate I will update
the bug if they directly via the system. If they get back to me, I will update
the bug. Thanks!

Comment 5

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc (PTO until April 26)]

WFM

Comment 6

[Felix Miata]

The css for this page remains littered with 60%, 65% and 70% font-size rules.
.normal is set at 70%, and .pageTitle at 95%. I see no change since the original
report.

Comment 7

[Graham Anderson]

Here is the reply I received from the Ofcom webmaster. His comment is to "make
Mozilla render CSS like IE"

----------------------------

Subject: Ofcom font sizes in Mozilla 
Date: 25/02/2004, 16:33 
From: Alex Nelson <[e-mail]> 
To: [e-mail] 


Hi Graham,
 
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. As I'm sure you're aware, creating
stylesheets that maintain a constant appearance across different
browsers/platforms is quite a challenge. Although our pages were designed with
IE in mind, we've done our best to ensure that there are no major differences
when the site is viewed in different browsers.
 
Along with older versions of Netscape, Mozilla seems to render text slightly
smaller than other major-league browsers when using non-absolute size values. As
using absolute values for text size would create usability problems for those
viewing pages with their text size set to large, there's not really much we can
do to maintain a constant text appearance.
 
I personally see this as more of an issue with Mozilla. I'd really like to see
all browser developers looking at standardising how their CSS renders, even if
this means mirroring the behaviour of IE (undeniably used by the vast majority
of surfers).
 
What are your thoughts on this?
 
Regards,
 
Alex
 

:: Alex Nelson
   web development
   020 7981 3242 
   [e-mail]

:: Ofcom
   riverside house
   2a southwark bridge road
   london SE1 9HA 
   www.ofcom.org.uk


 
 


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Comment 8

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

fixed