[pmwiki-users] new default skin

Bronwyn Boltwood arndis at gmail.com
Wed Aug 10 18:31:39 CDT 2005


On 8/10/05, Patrick R. Michaud <pmichaud at pobox.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 10, 2005 at 04:06:29PM -0400, Bronwyn Boltwood wrote:
> > On 8/10/05, H. Fox <haganfox at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Better.  The default font size is different in Firefox versus IE
> > > though.  I'll send screenshots off-list.
> >
> > The navigation text is rather small for me (Firefox on Windows XP SP2,
> > at 1600x1200).
> 
> Which "navigation text" -- the sidebar or the page actions?

Both. The sidebar is livable though slightly bigger would help.  But
the page actions I can barely read, and wouldn't even notice except
that I know to look for them.
 
> What size would you recommend instead?  Currently the sidebar
> is  using "small", while the page actions are using "x-small".
> (I think that "small" is too big for the page actions on my
> screen, but it may ultimately depend on whatever base font size
> we select.

I've written a modified css file with comments on new or changed
lines, and posted it along with a couple shots at
http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Test/NewDefSkinMod, but some commentary is
also below.

The overall change in code style to 

#wikileft { 
  width:14em;  /* will adapt to browser's text size setting */
  border-right:2px #cccccc solid; 
  padding:10px 10px 0 10px;
  font-size: 85%;  /* more comfortable than small */
  }

is because this style is easier to modify, and be sure that you have
see all the declarations.

- I set font-size for h1 so that stray h1s would be in proportion with
other headers and titles.
- I prefer using percentages or ems over keywords for font-size, since
they grant much more control.
- Steps between the three text sizes used are smaller than with
keywords.  Firefox seems to think that ~60% is a good size for
x-small...
- body font-size is set to 100% because it (a) leaves the user's
preferences intact, and (b) it squishes an IE bug. (Text sized in ems
will not work properly unless there's a font-size in percent for
body.)
- Nav links are now a dark blue, and have underlines on hover, to
confirm that these are in fact links, which helps the net-naive and
the blue-yellow colourblind.  Always make sure that everyone has a way
to determine what is a link without scrubbing the page with the mouse.
 On that note, linked headings in the sidebar have no "this is a link"
cue before they are hovered.  I decided to leave choosing one up to
you.
- Sidebar is now sized in ems, so that the layout will not cramp or
break when browser text size is changed.  I didn't fiddle with the
other pixel lengths, but keep in mind that web designs using
percentage or em values for lengths are more portable and flexible
than those using pixels.
- A more generous line-height (usually 125-140% is good) than the
browser default increases readability, because text has more breathing
room, and it is easier to follow a line with your eyes.

Bronwyn




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