docs/uidesign/monospace.html
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<p>
This page let you test the rendering font-family declaration for monospaced fonts. TODO: add some references here :-)
</p>
<p>
Erwin Dokter had the following explanation on <a href="https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/33496">Bugzilla #33496</a>:
</p>
<blockquote>
By default, a (Windows) browser has it's default font-sizes set at 16px for
serif and sans-serif, and 13px for monospace. Except in IE, where you cannot
set any font-sizes... it uses 16px for all fonts.
<br/>
Vector has a base font-size of 0.8em, and most browsers *correctly* scale down
all fonts, including the monospace font, accordingly. So monospace is shown at
0.8 x 13px = 10px (which is perceived as 'too small'). But when you assign any
font besides just "monospace", those browsers will no longer treat it as
monospace and use 0.8 x 16px = 13px instead.
</blockquote>
<p>
Additionally, it seems that textareas have their own font-size set in Chrome
(but not Firefox and other browsers), making them unaffected by this behavior.
</p>
<p>
Below are various rendering:
</p>
<table>
<tr>
<th><pre></th>
<th><textarea></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<pre style='
font-family: monospace;'>
font-family: monospace;
</pre>
</td>
<td>
<textarea style='
font-family: monospace;'>
font-family: monospace;
</textarea>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<pre style='
font-family: "Courier New";'>
font-family: "Courier New";
</pre>
</td>
<td>
<textarea style='
font-family: "Courier New";'>
font-family: "Courier New";
</textarea>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<pre style='
font-family: Courier;'>
font-family: Courier;
</pre>
</td>
<td>
<textarea style='
font-family: Courier;'>
font-family: Courier;
</textarea>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<pre style='
font-family: monospace, monospace;'>
font-family: monospace, monospace;
</pre>
</td>
<td>
<textarea style='
font-family: monospace, monospace;'>
font-family: monospace, monospace;
</textarea>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<pre style='
font-family: monospace, "Courier New";'>
font-family: monospace, "Courier New";
</pre>
</td>
<td>
<textarea style='
font-family: monospace, "Courier New";'>
font-family: monospace, "Courier New";
</textarea>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<pre style='
font-family: monospace, Courier;'>
font-family: monospace, Courier;
</pre>
</td>
<td>
<textarea style='
font-family: monospace, Courier;'>
font-family: monospace, Courier;
</textarea>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<pre style='
font-family: monospace, Verdana;'>
font-family: monospace, Verdana;
</pre>
</td>
<td>
<textarea style='
font-family: monospace, Verdana;'>
font-family: monospace, Verdana;
</textarea>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<pre style='
font-family: monospace, DOESNOTEXISTREALLY;'>
font-family: monospace, DOESNOTEXISTREALLY;
</pre>
</td>
<td>
<textarea style='
font-family: monospace, DOESNOTEXISTREALLY;'>
font-family: monospace, DOESNOTEXISTREALLY;
</textarea>
</td>
</tr>
</table>