I want in on this trick!

August 24, 2010 7:44 AM

How do I make that nice smaller font that some posters here use?

Some of the responses to various questions to AskMetaFilter have smaller type than the default, usually at the end of the response. When I see this, I imagine the responder is dong a stage-aside (back of vertical hand to side of mouth to indicate a parenthetical remark.) It also has the pleasant effect of mumbling, "oh, by the way..."

Can I make this smaller type myself, or it this some kind of exclusive club?

Yes, I did research this question, to no avail.

posted by BostonTerrier to Computers & Internet (16 answers total)

[small], where ] and [ are replaced by > and < .
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 7:45 AM on August 24, 2010

put small tags on either side of it. [small] [/small] only using angle braces ( the things above the comma and period on US keyboards)
posted by notsnot at 7:46 AM on August 24, 2010

Just enclose your small text inside HTML "small" tags, like this:

<small>small text goes here</small>
posted by FishBike at 7:46 AM on August 24, 2010

Don't forget to close your tags in case you want to write something after it that isn't small! Do so by doing [/small] at the end, replacing the [ and ] as above with the greater than and less than signs.
posted by Grither at 7:47 AM on August 24, 2010

Response by poster: ah, HTML! {hand smacking forehead}
Thanks, posters.
I shoulda known!
posted by BostonTerrier at 7:49 AM on August 24, 2010

It's just HTML.

Surround your target text with <small> and </small>

So <small>This!</small> in the comment box becomes This! after you preview or post.

You will see that it's done correctly if you look at your preview. If you see angle brackets or cruft, try again.

(Anything using real angle brackets gets treated as HTML code, so I used some alternative code to make the angle brackets appear in this answer).
posted by maudlin at 7:49 AM on August 24, 2010

Thank you BostonTerrier for asking this question!
posted by TooFewShoes at 7:52 AM on August 24, 2010

You can nest them too.
posted by qwip at 7:59 AM on August 24, 2010 [6 favorites]

I can never remember the exact syntax of the HTML (yes, I'm lazy) so I click on the BOLD indicator at the bottom of the comment box which inserts the correct HTML, then go back and type over the "trong" with "mall" since they both start with "s".
posted by CathyG at 8:05 AM on August 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

And I forgot my other tip - in some browsers, you can select an interesting bit of text and right-click. It will bring up a menu where you can select "View Selection Source" and then you can see exactly what HTML was used to create it.
posted by CathyG at 8:06 AM on August 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

cool. i wondered this as well.
posted by KogeLiz at 9:59 AM on August 24, 2010

Interesting that <big> doesn't work...
posted by mkultra at 10:39 AM on August 24, 2010

Best answer: FWIW, the MeFi Wiki has a thorough entry on formatting.
posted by mkultra at 10:43 AM on August 24, 2010

A lot of people actually use <sub> (subscript) instead because it's styled with a smaller line-height, whereas <small> keeps the same line-height as normal size text. Compare:

This is <small>: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer pretium turpis suscipit magna commodo ornare. Phasellus et placerat metus. Quisque magna nisi, placerat eu pharetra in, sollicitudin sed leo. Nam semper libero eu odio facilisis feugiat. Suspendisse tincidunt, magna id iaculis pretium, enim velit sodales purus, in sagittis nisi risus eget nibh. Aliquam sodales est sed ipsum vestibulum aliquet. Duis non ultrices augue. Nulla at orci sed erat auctor scelerisque. Nunc eleifend condimentum ornare. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam erat volutpat. Vestibulum aliquam orci at lectus dignissim egestas. Ut facilisis lorem et urna sagittis pharetra. Nunc a sapien ut dui faucibus viverra at sed lorem.

<sub>This is _{: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer pretium turpis suscipit magna commodo ornare. Phasellus et placerat metus. Quisque magna nisi, placerat eu pharetra in, sollicitudin sed leo. Nam semper libero eu odio facilisis feugiat. Suspendisse tincidunt, magna id iaculis pretium, enim velit sodales purus, in sagittis nisi risus eget nibh. Aliquam sodales est sed ipsum vestibulum aliquet. Duis non ultrices augue. Nulla at orci sed erat auctor scelerisque. Nunc eleifend condimentum ornare. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam erat volutpat. Vestibulum aliquam orci at lectus dignissim egestas. Ut facilisis lorem et urna sagittis pharetra. Nunc a sapien ut dui faucibus viverra at sed lorem.}

posted by Rhomboid at 10:56 AM on August 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

Don't forget the ever-useful "blockquote" tag:

ah, HTML! {hand smacking forehead}
Thanks, posters.
I shoulda known!

Comes in quite handy :)
posted by sprocket87 at 8:58 AM on August 25, 2010

"Big" no longer works because someone went a wee bit crazy with it.
posted by deborah at 3:20 PM on August 26, 2010