On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 11:11:04AM +0200, Michal Suchanek wrote: > Even if points are not precise unit in CSS because of browser and OS > problems most users can set their DPI in their preferences if it is > not automatically determined from screen size (unless they are running > a particularly abhorrent browser + OS combination). > > Once you set the DPI properly sites designed in points, mm or em > should be reasonably readable for you.
Not really, at least as far as points/mm are concerned[1], assuming that by "properly" you mean "determined from screen size". Setting your browser/OS DPI setting to match the physical DPI of your display means that 12pt text on the screen will be the same size as 12pt text on a printed page. However, this does not mean that the text will be readable if, say, the screen is an HDTV and you're sitting on the far side of the room. I would argue that display DPI should be based on what the user finds most usable in their particular environment and physical screen DPI should be completely ignored except in a handful of special cases, such as computers being used for print design, where it's actually important to be able to clearly relate the screen display to the size of a physical object. But, then, I would also argue that, aside from those few special cases, DPI should be abandoned when dealing with computer displays, as trying to relate on-screen display sizes to physical sizes is fundamentally misguided, since you have no way of knowing whether the user wants ultra-dense display to fit on their iPhone or five-inch-high text for their gigantic HD rig. [1] As already mentioned in this thread, modern browsers base em on the user's default font size, not an actual physical unit, so em-sizing should work regardless of whether the DPI setting is accurate or not. -- Dave Sherohman ______________________________________________________________________ css-discuss [cs...@lists.css-discuss.org] http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ List policies -- http://css-discuss.org/policies.html Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt/
