Changing font sizes, colours and styles.

[dandelions]

This is an offshoot of something mentioned on the checkers thread.

I would like to ask that people stop changing the default font size, colour or style when making posts. Phrases or sentences in italics/bold/colour for emphasis are fine...but I'm having serious trouble reading entire posts formatted differently to normal. I don't know if I'm the only one; this is a recent problem for me as some of my health issues have seriously flared up in the last two weeks.

Accessibility-wise, posts being formatted differently are unhelpful, and there is nothing that can be done, short of installing a custom stylesheet and removing all italics, font colours and font size information from every site I visit, which is not a route I wish to go down. So, I'm asking that people at least consider writing posts without inserting arbitrary line breaks or changing the way in which the font is displayed. Thank you.

[Twofold Black]

I don't have <i>trouble</i> reading posts with default formatting, but I find having to do so annoying. It reads very 'trying too hard' to me; the way to add interest to a post is with content, not with formatting.

[Jessi]

I also have trouble reading it, so you're not alone ;_; I keep my font small in my sig for polietness sake (I don't want a huge sig xD) but in posts, I think it's nice to have the default size and color. So I third this and also want to extend my thanks for it!

[Kari]

Thanks for making this official. It was already a habit for me to skip over posts that are in a font too tiny for me to scan, so it was really annoying to have to stop, squint, and process.

[bonecrivain]

The tiny font hasn't bothered me because, frankly, I simply don't read it. If it's small enough where I have to squint to read it, I skip straight over it.

So yeah, glad this is an official thing now.

[nanabobo567]

Yeah, it bugs me occasionally. In particular, I seem to remember some time ago someone who posted all in orange font, and I'd have to highlight it to read it.

[checkers]

Ok I only started using small font because I noticed that someone //always// uses this size font, at first i didnt because I thought i read somewhere that it wasnt allowed, then i saw someone (not naming names but we know who) using them on several threads so i thought 'k I'll use them too they look nicer anway' =/

[AngharadTy]

If you just like how a smaller font looks, you can hit Ctrl-(hyphen) a few times, in Firefox, or go to View > Text Size in IE7 and choose a smaller option. (There may be a command for it, but I don't use it, and the menu lists nothing.)

[FaerieInGrey]

My sig font is also small to be polite, since even the writing I have technically makes my sig go over the limit by about 2px. I don't think the sig writing is what's bing spoken about, anyways.

On a similar note, you know that really little font, like...

this one, that you have to copy/paste to read?

(Translation: "this one, that you have to copy/paste to read?")

I don't know about anyone else, but I don't read that, unless it's that way for some good reason like a spoiler or something. But even that, I'd rather people use the hard-to-read colour to hide, because I am uncoordinated enough with the mouse that I sometimes require several tries to highlight the entirety of the tiny line of text... and sometimes it's not worth it.

Just while we're airing out our annoyances.

[AngharadTy]

... unless it's that way for some good reason like a spoiler or something. But even that, I'd rather people use the hard-to-read colour to hide, because I am uncoordinated enough with the mouse that I sometimes require several tries to highlight the entirety of the tiny line of text... and sometimes it's not worth it.

The problem with changing the color is that if you have the scheme set to something else, the background color may be grey instead of white, that kind of thing. (Granted, right now there's only the one scheme available, but that's not meant to be permanent, I don't think.)

[Wingsrising]

Another vote for hating copy-and-paste-to-read tiny text. Especially when what it says turns out to be pointless..

[AngharadTy]

You guys know you can just click the "quote" button and see the tiny text un-tiny, right? ^_~

[oogabooga]

Not if you're not logged in, which I frequently am not But yes, in general that's a useful tip. Another option is temporarily increasing the text size in your browser (in Firefox, Ctrl-0 immediately sets it back to normal).

[Arviragus]

I love my mouse that comes with a built-in magnifier for the eeny-teeny text, but I'll agree that text should ONLY be eeny-teeny for politeness' sake or when it's something that not everyone might want to read (such as a spoiler).

[dandelions]

Additionally, the other problem with the white text for spoilers is it's a lot more legible on the dark grey than the light grey posts (post background alternates, and people don't always know which their post is going to come up on), to the point where on a high-contrast monitor it's readable.