[DavideNL]

I hate how Safari on iPad does not have proper Cookie handling… The only solution is to permanently use Safari in “private mode”, but it has some limitations (you cannot remember your browsing history, and you can’t set a default Font size for example.)

Firefox on iOS can do this, but you can’t set a Font size at all. So many websites (like Hacker News) are nearly impossible to read on an iPad.

[nagyf]

Why does HN have such a bad font size? I always have to set it to 120% otherwise it's so small I can't even read it on my big ultrawide monitor.

This is the only website which I have to scale up on every computer...

[input_sh]

Just 120? I do 150% each time.

Font size is set to really low (titles on the homepage are 10px, comments are even smaller).

I can read it fine at 100%, it just requires a bit more mental struggle in the age where font sizes are usually in 16/18px range.

[spideymans]

Gosh, I'm happy I'm not the only one. I have 20/20 vision, yet I have to turn up the HN font size on all my devices. It's the only site I've had to do this.

[beltsazar]

In addition to zooming in to 110%, I also apply this CSS for increasing the line spacing and decreasing the number of words per line:

    div.comment {
        line-height: 1.5
    }

    td {
        max-width: 700px;
    }

It improves the readability a lot for me.

[dmos62]

My 1440p monitor works ok with HN's defaults.

[gruez]

Do you have eyesight issues and/or a high dpi display? I'm using a ~105 ppi display and it works fine with regular font size.

[jlarocco]

I do have a high DPI display, and HN is ridiculously tiny without manually overriding, because it's setting text size in pixels instead of points, for no good reason. It doesn't make any sense. View source shows:

    line-height:12pt; height:10px;

Why use device independent units for line-height, but not the text itself?

[gruez]

>setting text size in pixels instead of points

"px" in css doesn't correspond to literal pixels on the display.

>By definition, this is the physical size of a single pixel at a pixel density of 96 DPI, located an arm's length away from the viewer's eyes.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/CSS_pixel

[q-rews]

As opposed to using points? That makes no sense. Every single CSS unit just maps to a fixed value in pixels[1], from em to % and cm.

The only reason why they're in pt is that who wrote the stylesheet didn't know any better.

1: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/CSS/Building_...

[gruez]

>As opposed to using points? That makes no sense.

Seems like you're replying to the wrong comment. The comment you're replying to is my comment arguing against using "pixels instead of points".

[jlarocco]

Thank you. It seems "px" is really the worst of both worlds, then.

It's not device independent like "pt", it's not what most people expect it to be (one device pixel), and there's subjective "wiggle room" in what it actually means.

[gruez]

>It's not device independent like "pt", it's not what most people expect it to be (one device pixel), and there's subjective "wiggle room" in what it actually means.

This seems to also be incorrect. px and pt are both absolute units, and 1.33px == 1pt. If you want relative units you need to use something like em.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/CSS/Building_...

[spicybright]

lol, an arms length. That's like when people used to measure feet by using an actual foot.

[jrochkind1]

My "eyesight issue" is being older than 40 ha! It'll happen to you too youngster!

[adamc]

Might be an age issue. When you get older, small font sizes are problematic. It's rude of sites to use them, IMO.

[tomc1985]

Personally I hate large font sizes. What do they think I am, 5?

[q-rews]

It depends on how large. 16/18px is a good default for body copy. IFTTT is just taking the piss, I visit it at 70% or less.

[OJFord]

I have a 123ppi display, normal is ok but I have it zoomed out to 80 or 90%.

People are different, so it's good to have font size and zoom options. Some can go bigger, some can go smaller. I use 80% on a lot of sites, and an extension called 'Zoom Page WE' to remember the settings.

[q-rews]

Because HN is not "designed" as much as it's just been written by dinosaurs who visit it via Lynx. My browser is currently at 150% and I'm basically a millennial.

The smallest font on this page is 9px, that's just ludicrous.

I mean just open the CSS file and judge for yourself.

[Angostura]

What would proper cookie handling look like for you, in this context? What would you like to be able to do?

[DavideNL]

I want to

- specify which websites may store cookies/cache. All websites not specified can not store anything (and thus not track me), and all data for these websites is deleted once i close the tab

- i want to remember all my history

I can do this in Firefox on macOS (with some container extensions, can’t remember the names now)

[jonnytran]

I started using the DuckDuckGo app on iOS to do exactly this. You can choose to "fireproof" any site you're on, adding it to a list of sites that's immune to clearing all data.

I don't think it has a history feature at all though.

[DavideNL]

That’s pretty cool, i’ll check it out.

Unfortunately you can’t change ‘Font size’ at all in the Duckduckgo browser.

[herodotus]

Safari used to have a feature where you could delete all cookies except for ones you had explicitly marked to keep. So, for example, I might keep ones like my bank login name and my amazon history, but very easily remove everything else. I used this all the time. Even better would be the option to delete all but selected cookies every time I closed Safari.

[DavideNL]

I assume you are talking about macOS, not iOS.

On macOS, there's also an app to achieve that, called "Cookie": https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/cookie/id1473091386?l=en&mt=12

On iOS however, Apple's walled garden...

[swiley]

Am I the only one that likes the default HN size? I'm currently reading it on a Pinephone with unit scaling and it's pretty readable.