Fonts for browsing compatibility

From: Chris Hoogendyk (choogend@library.umass.edu)
Date: Wed Jan 08 2003 - 15:30:54 EST


(really, this is on topic for Solaris 8,)

Well, today is MacWorld Expo SF. Apple comes out with an amazing new 17"
PowerBook G4 (http://www.apple.com/powerbook/index17.html). Microsoft
puts up a new web page (http://www.microsoft.com) that is unreadable on
a Mac screen.

So, I popped on over to my SunRay to see how Microsoft's web site looked
under Solaris & Netscape. I found that it is completely unreadable on my
SunRay (Solaris 8 & Netscape Communicator 4.76).

It looks fine on a PC, although far too cluttered (unselectively put
every link that anyone thought might be important right on the front page).

Unfortunately, this is all too common these days. Web designers design
for PCs. They don't test on Macs or on Unix. They use style sheets that
call for specific fonts and your display ends up looking lousy if you
aren't on a Windows machine. In this case it is totally unreadable.

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

So, the simple question here is: Can I improve the compatibility of
Netscape on my SunRays by installing a set of Windows compatible fonts
so that more Windows designed sites can be displayed more clearly?

Expanding on that -- are there other compatibility tweeks that I can
make in configurations and settings that will allow more Windows
designed sites to be viewed more easily?

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

The point here is that these are public access stations in the library.
One of the major complaints is readability. I upped the font size for
standard display, but when the page designer uses a style sheet and
specifies a font, that ends up over-riding my settings and being lousy
or unreadable.

Another question entirely would be whether there is a better or more
compatible browser I should switch to.

It may not seem like a big issue, but when I'm trying to replace PCs in
public areas with SunRays, the human element becomes VERY important.

TIA

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

Chris Hoogendyk

-- 
   O__  ---- Network Specialist & Unix Systems Administrator
  c/ /'_ --- Library Information Systems & Technology Services
 (*) \(*) -- W.E.B. Du Bois Library
~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
<choogend@library.umass.edu>
---------------
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