, 8 June 2012 (UTC) 
 :::"sometimes" refers to its usage in periodic table templates in the first place. Font reducing is not always used in similar places, and even when it is, different numbers are used (90%, 85%, 83%, ). My point is that it is not done consequently over these templates. Your note "... keep the note on one line" is irrelevant, since we should not use fontsetting to squeeze text. As you imply, it is not written in MOS (used in MOS it is), and that is what I wrote. Horribly, even highly usage templates use different fontsetting (eg navbox vs infobox). And, of course, you will have met my conclusion. -  12:47