site fonts too small on Mac browsers, plz help

[rdlaing]

my site is showing up with text waaaaaaaaay too small on macintosh browsers (IE 4.x -- I know, a dinosaur they use at work, but I think it's not the browsers' age but the Macintosh platform. I'm going to confirm this on an IMAC later today, but I want the site to be readable on Mac IE 4.x as well).

I have the fonts set through external stylesheets and based on ems. I did this for scalability and access as per the WC3 guidelines. I think the problem is that the default font size for mac is smaller, and that is what the em's are based on. I have no idea how to get around this.

Anyone have suggestions on how I can tweak things so the fonts will be readable across platforms?

I'd rather not use a javascript detect script, but if that is the only way, can someone suggest a good approach?

THANKS!

-- rd

[mairving]

More than likely it doesn't know what a em is. Try using pixels or points to see if that works. I generally always use pixels in stylesheets. The reason is the same reasoning that I use for not worrying much about how things look in NS 4.7 anymore, the large majority of people don't use it.

It shouldn't be all that difficult to use browser detection to load a different stylesheet may be your other option.

[rdlaing]

Thanks for the prompt reply, mairving.

I think I am going to have to use the @import browser detection trick to load a different stylesheet for netscape 4.x.

If the problem is the browser is too old to know what an em is, then I can live with that. But I think the problem is not the browser version, though, but the Mac default font size. I'm going to check this at an internet cafe with imacs in about 30 minutes.

I can't really go to pixels for size specification because the site needs to be compliant for accessibility -- i.e. people who have vision problems need to be able to crank the font size up, which you can't do if the pixels are a fixed size.

Is there anyway to detect whether someone has a Mac and then serve them a different stylesheet based on that? I know the way to detect netscape 4.x, but is there a way to detect IE 4.x (if that is also the problem)?

Puzzled,

-- rd

[mairving]

You might get some ideas over at Mozilla