Displaying font sizes across platforms

Font sizes are relative to the font size preferences set in Web browsers. In addition, fonts in Windows are about one step larger than in Mac OS because of a difference in pixel resolution between platforms. To make sure that your page layout can handle a range of font sizes across platforms, here are some guidelines to follow when designing it:

• You can control the font size across platforms by using CSS styles. When specifying the font size for a style in a cascading style sheet, use pixels rather than points. Point sizes will vary on platforms due to pixel resolution, whereas pixels remain fixed. In the Font tab of the CSS Selector Inspector, choose Pixel from the Size pop-up menu. (See Setting Font properties.)
• Before publishing your page on the Web, preview it at a variety of font sizes on a variety of platforms and browsers. You can also use the View palette to view a simulated preview of your page in a Web browser for Windows or Mac OS. (See Setting view options for page layout.)
• Don't use HTML heading attributes (such as h1's) with relative font sizes. The relative font size can cause the heading to wrap and adversely affect your page layout.
• Use layout text boxes to control the amount of space that appears between text and an image. When text appears at a smaller or larger font size than what you used for the page layout, the image moves up and down as the text resizes.
• Keep in mind that a layout text box doesn't decrease in size when the text appears at a smaller font size than what you used for the page layout. As a result, extra space can appear between the text in the box and objects below the box. However, a layout text box does increase in size to accommodate the text when the text appears at a larger font size than what you used for the page layout. When the box increases in size, objects below the box are moved downward on the page. (However, by using pixels for the font size in a CSS style, the font size will display the same on all platforms, and therefore the size of the layout text box need not change.)
• Keep in mind that the default font size displayed in the Layout Editor does not necessarily reflect the actual size of text in a Web browser, and neither does changing the default font size in the Font preferences affect the actual font size of the page. (The Font preferences are for setting the GoLive display fonts only.)