Default fonts on my site are defined in an external stylesheet as
body { font-family: Arial; font-size:62.5%;}
This works fine in Windows and Mac.
To test my site I installed Linux Mint 13 (Mate) and loaded a selection of browsers from the Repository. I made two installations on separate PC’s. I left all browser settings as their defaults.
Firefox, Opera, Konqueror and Reconq displayed my pages as expected.
Web (Epiphany) overrides the default font style (i.e. it is not Arial) and also displays too large a font size.
Midori displays too large a font size. (installed in windows, midori displays the correct font size).
I believe Web (Epiphany) is designed principally for the GNOME desktop environment and maybe this is a factor or do I need to design differently for these two browsers to make them display the fonts correctly in Linux?
Font style and size differences in some Linux browsers
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Font style and size differences in some Linux browsers
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Re: Font style and size differences in some Linux browsers
I don't use either of those browsers myself, but in common with most browsers, somewhere in their settings they have a tick box for "Allow pages to choose their own fonts" which is usually selected by default. Before you start redesigning your website I would check to see if that option is still selected in your versions of Epiphany and Midori.
Re: Font style and size differences in some Linux browsers
Thanks.
In Web (Epiphany) the default is set as 'Use system fonts' and the user options are not available, unticking this allows the user to define their own fonts.
In Midori, by default 'Always use my font choices' is unchecked, so you would expect that my default css styles would apply. However, there is also a field defined as 'Proportional Font Family' where you can change the font style and size. This field impacts on the web page without the need to tick the 'Always use my font choices' box? So this is probably overriding the css style.
Neither browser offers the option to configure an Arial font and I wonder if this part of the problem? A quick search on the web suggest that there is no Arial font in Linux.
In Web (Epiphany) the default is set as 'Use system fonts' and the user options are not available, unticking this allows the user to define their own fonts.
In Midori, by default 'Always use my font choices' is unchecked, so you would expect that my default css styles would apply. However, there is also a field defined as 'Proportional Font Family' where you can change the font style and size. This field impacts on the web page without the need to tick the 'Always use my font choices' box? So this is probably overriding the css style.
Neither browser offers the option to configure an Arial font and I wonder if this part of the problem? A quick search on the web suggest that there is no Arial font in Linux.
Re: Font style and size differences in some Linux browsers
Oh it is available alright, but it may not be installed by default on all distros. On Ubuntu based distros the package that includes the font is this:
But not everyone will have that package because it is a microsoft font and linux users don't like microsoft. The default web font on Linux appears to be Serif.
Code: Select all
apt-cache show ttf-mscorefonts-installer
Package: ttf-mscorefonts-installer
This package allows for easy installation of the Microsoft True Type
Core Fonts for the Web including:
.
Andale Mono
Arial Black
Arial (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Comic Sans MS (Bold)
Courier New (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Georgia (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Impact
Times New Roman (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Trebuchet (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Verdana (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Webdings
.
You will need an Internet connection to download these fonts if you
don't already have them.
.
NOTE: the package fonts-liberation contains free variants of the Times,
Arial and Courier fonts. It's better to use those instead unless you
specifically need one of the other fonts from this package.
Multi-Arch: foreign
Description-md5: 3cf2bbaf676bcd51633633514c88751a
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Origin: Ubuntu
Re: Font style and size differences in some Linux browsers
Thanks.
I added Liberation Sans as an alternative default font and this seems to be okay as an equivalent to Arial.
I don't understand however why some of the browsers didn't need this. Unless they include the font with the browser or accurately map some alternative?
I added Liberation Sans as an alternative default font and this seems to be okay as an equivalent to Arial.
I don't understand however why some of the browsers didn't need this. Unless they include the font with the browser or accurately map some alternative?
Re: Font style and size differences in some Linux browsers
Well in the great sea of browser users. I would think Midori & Epiphany are very very small group of fish to put too much time or worry into it. Midori is so new and evolving so expect major changes that may no longer work or not needed at all down the line.
Just a thought and hope you can resolve the issue quickly and easily.
.
Just a thought and hope you can resolve the issue quickly and easily.
.