Home Trending Latest threads New posts Developer diaries

*** Post Your IDEAS to IMPROVE the FORUM. ***

Jump to latest Follow Reply
  • We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Show only dev responses
I haven’t been following this forum, so if someone has suggested this already, sorry, but it’s important.

Font sizes should scale with user preferences.

I have a reader of my AAR who needs a large font size to be able to read my thread. In an effort to be accommodating, I started posting with a bigger font. The reader I tried to help wrote a post asking why I made my font size smaller. They complained that a lot of other writers were making their font size smaller and wasn’t sure why. I was confused. It was bigger on my screen. Then I did a test.

I went to my preferences and set my font size to extra large. Then I looked at my AAR. All my posts where I had not adjusted my font size had a very large font size. The one I had made larger (15 points) remained 15 points. To support readers with disabilities, it would be awesome if all font sizes scaled up in relation to our default font size. For example, if I increase my default font size from 12 to 15, then any headings that are 24 point become 30… or something like that.

If you support people with visual disabilities participating in the forum, I hope you agree with this post and/or post your own request for a change in this thread.
 
  • 7Like
  • 4Love
  • 1
Reactions:
Sirdramaticus said:
I haven’t been following this forum, so if someone has suggested this already, sorry, but it’s important.

Font sizes should scale with user preferences.

I have a reader of my AAR who needs a large font size to be able to read my thread. In an effort to be accommodating, I started posting with a bigger font. The reader I tried to help wrote a post asking why I made my font size smaller. They complained that a lot of other writers were making their font size smaller and wasn’t sure why. I was confused. It was bigger on my screen. Then I did a test.

I went to my preferences and set my font size to extra large. Then I looked at my AAR. All my posts where I had not adjusted my font size had a very large font size. The one I had made larger (15 points) remained 15 points. To support readers with disabilities, it would be awesome if all font sizes scaled up in relation to our default font size. For example, if I increase my default font size from 12 to 15, then any headings that are 24 point become 30… or something like that.

If you support people with visual disabilities participating in the forum, I hope you agree with this post and/or post your own request for a change in this thread.
Click to expand...

So, from 2020 onwards or so, I have all my text at 15 or larger. And it is indeed much improved from the default size, for mobile and even PC users.

I think the pre existing standard we should be aiming for regarding text size, customisation and accessibility is the fanfiction.net app, which has a dramatic amount of options for text font, size, style, dyslexia modes, background and text colours, highlighters, etc which can be set and adjusted BY THE READER, which I think is the key here.

I set out my text for a reason, in an order, setting, font and size that makes sense for the story.

However, I am happy for readers to adjust any and all text so they can...you know...read it.

The only thing I'd rather people not do is feed it into an audio book generator for AI harvesting or similar methods. Do not plagerise, please.
 
  • 1Like
  • 1Love
Reactions:
TheButterflyComposer said:
So, from 2020 onwards or so, I have all my text at 15 or larger. And it is indeed much improved from the default size, for mobile and even PC users.
Click to expand...
The problem, @TheButterflyComposer, is that when you set your font size to 15, the forum assumes that you want the reader to see a size 15 font no matter what. I was inspired when you shared that you adjust the font size to 15 and did the same. The problem is that it negatively impacted my readers whose default font sizes were bigger than 15. In other words, your attempt to be courteous would make things worse because it takes away the reader’s ability to set your font size where they can read it. It shouldn’t be that way, but knowing about it might help make sure that all readers can enjoy your writing.

TheButterflyComposer said:
I think the pre existing standard we should be aiming for regarding text size, customisation and accessibility is the fanfiction.net app, which has a dramatic amount of options for text font, size, style, dyslexia modes, background and text colours, highlighters, etc which can be set and adjusted BY THE READER, which I think is the key here.
Click to expand...

Sounds awesome. I hope Paradox looks into this. Thank you for adding your ideas and improving the preferred solution with one that already exists.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
Sirdramaticus said:
The problem, @TheButterflyComposer, is that when you set your font size to 15, the forum assumes that you want the reader to see a size 15 font no matter what. I was inspired when you shared that you adjust the font size to 15 and did the same. The problem is that it negatively impacted my readers whose default font sizes were bigger than 15. In other words, your attempt to be courteous would make things worse because it takes away the reader’s ability to set your font size where they can read it. It shouldn’t be that way, but knowing about it might help make sure that all readers can enjoy your writing.



Sounds awesome. I hope Paradox looks into this. Thank you for adding your ideas and improving the preferred solution with one that already exists.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think the solution, as other apps have already discovered, is placing control entirely in the hands of the reader. Give them the options to set text however they like, and make it easy to adjust them on the fly.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
TheButterflyComposer said:
Yeah, I think the solution, as other apps have already discovered, is placing control entirely in the hands of the reader. Give them the options to set text however they like, and make it easy to adjust them on the fly.
Click to expand...
Should still allow for the writer to change relative text size.
Depending on what you're writing you might well want much bigger, or smaller text, for selext things.
Like say you're doing a CK AAR and a plot ends with an Inn going kaboom. You might well want to use big font for that to convey its a huge blast.
Similarly extremely silent noise/talk might want to be small font.
 
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Wagonlitz said:
Should still allow for the writer to change relative text size.
Depending on what you're writing you might well want much bigger, or smaller text, for selext things.
Like say you're doing a CK AAR and a plot ends with an Inn going kaboom. You might well want to use big font for that to convey its a huge blast.
Similarly extremely silent noise/talk might want to be small font.
Click to expand...
Sounds like you need to change the way the "Font size" dropdown in preferences works:
--- Current = any font without an explicitly specified size has the size specified in this dropdown (Medium = 12px, etc)
--- New = all font sizes are multiplied by the amount specified in this dropdown (Medium = 1x, Large = 1.5x, Extra-large = 2x), and any font without an explicitly specified size is assumed to have base size (before multiplier) of 12px.
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
jonjowett said:
Sounds like you need to change the way the "Font size" dropdown in preferences works:
--- Current = any font without an explicitly specified size has the size specified in this dropdown (Medium = 12px, etc)
--- New = all font sizes are multiplied by the amount specified in this dropdown (Medium = 1x, Large = 1.5x, Extra-large = 2x), and any font without an explicitly specified size is assumed to have base size (before multiplier) of 12px.
Click to expand...
A less fidgety and imho better solution is to have all font sizes change size by the same factor.
If you raise the main one by a factor of 2, then the big text, and the small text, gets a factor of 2 bigger too.
That way you keep the ratio rhe writer wanted, and the ratio of text sizes might well be important to the flow of the story or even the plot, as you can utilise differences in font size very creatively and go convey information.

E.g. could have a sound or talking get a progressively bigger font size as it gets closer, to signal that. Especially if it's ominous that can havr great effect.
 
  • 4Like
Reactions:
Lots of good ideas and support for a change, but I haven’t heard anything from people on the inside who could pass them along and/or make the ideas work. @Castellon @TinyWiking @DebbieElla @Triumph Jordi , I see you are all labeled as Paradox staff and post on this forum. What can we do to encourage Paradox to support people who need larger font sizes in a way that we don’t accidentally undermine their settings as board users? Thanks!
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Assuming I understand the issue, The solution if you need a larger font size has already been pointed out a few post above this one, , you can adjust the default font size, this should solve your problem, while maintaining formatting of authors that specified an override of the default. If some of your readers require larger fonts, have them increase their font size not you.
 
Castellon said:
Assuming I understand the issue, The solution if you need a larger font size has already been pointed out a few post above this one, , you can adjust the default font size, this should solve your problem, while maintaining formatting of authors that specified an override of the default. If some of your readers require larger fonts, have them increase their font size not you.
Click to expand...
I think, but could be wrong, that the issue was that only the default size scales, so if you set a specific size then that'll not scale ever.
 
  • 2
Reactions:
Castellon said:
Assuming I understand the issue, The solution if you need a larger font size has already been pointed out a few post above this one, , you can adjust the default font size, this should solve your problem, while maintaining formatting of authors that specified an override of the default. If some of your readers require larger fonts, have them increase their font size not you.
Click to expand...
@Wagonlitz is right. I have tested this.

Potoroo said:
I use the browser to scale in such instances. Ctrl+ and Ctrl- scale everything.
Click to expand...
This is a useful workaround, but it still seems to me that the forum should have the fix built in as well. If not, it’s that much harder for someone with vision problems to read the font, it means that people trying to be courteous and post in a larger font make the issue worse, and for those who have made artistic choices on their font size, people changing the default font size don’t perceive the post in the way it was intended to be seen.

@Castellon I feel your message comes across like shrugging and saying to people trying to be helpful “you did the wrong thing. Don’t change your font size” is kind of rude. I also think that it’s a problem because this information is not obvious and easy to find. Even if it was, how do you spin that into something polite? “Hey everyone! Our font size change coding for the forum only works on the default size. If you change your font size people with vision problems can’t read your post. People with vision problems, good news! If you can’t read a post because we won’t fix this accessibility issue in the coding for our message board, you can work even harder to read our posts by adjusting your browser size. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

Scaling all the font sizes based on the size of a default font seems like a very reasonable accommodation for a message board to make for its users. I hope Paradox looks into it.
 
  • 1
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Potoroo said:
I use the browser to scale in such instances. Ctrl+ and Ctrl- scale everything.
Click to expand...
There is no control key on my tablet. ;)

I can enlarge the author-specified font size manually, by pinching my fingers and spreading them on the screen until it’s large enough to read, but then I have to scroll horizontally as well as the usual vertical scrolling, and now we’re talking physical pain, and damage if I persist. Nothing on the forum is worth that! :)
 
  • 1
  • 1
Reactions:
If an author makes their text large for everyone, then does that not also make it large for you even if you have set the default text to be larger? I mean it does not make the font size the author changed to the default size it is still Large, and therefore easier for you to read. Maybe you can talk with Lord Durham (The main Mod that looks after AAR forums, and consult with him about creating a best practices guide on font size, and the possible pitfalls for people that need larger text. In the mean time many work arounds have been mentioned, and I will add proportional scaling to all font sizes to the wish list. Thank-you for bringing this to my attention.
 
@Castellon , thank you for adding this to the wishlist. I set the font size on one of my posts from whatever the default was to a 15 point font, which is bigger. However, the reader in question had their default set to larger than 15 point. In my attempt to help, I made things worse because instead of seeing my post at, let’s say 24 point, I forced it down to a 15 point font because I changed the size from the default.
 
  • 1
Reactions:
Setting users on ignore should not hide threads they created (particularly large ones).
 
  • 2
  • 1Like
  • 1
Reactions:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back