On 26.07.2012 06:06, David Hucklesby wrote:
Perhaps this is just nonsense. But it just has to be better than 62.5%. I
use Opera a lot, with a minimum text size of 12px--you'd be surprised how
many sites break because of the scaling due to the 62.5% base size. It's
everywhere! :(
Nothing that works better than basing font-size on 62.5%, is nonsense. :-)
FWIW: When designing I do not think in "relative to px" terms when it
comes to text. Those "px" just complicates things unnecessary for text,
as it is "easy to read" that matters. Can't imagine end-users that are
counting "px" when they visit a site, and if anyone entertains such a
hobby they can at least keep themselves occupied for a while.
The question of "which 'px' do we count today" is still quite blurred
with increasing screen resolution and split between "CSS 'px'" and
"screen 'px'". Maybe one day W3C and browser vendors will come to some
sort of agreement about "how and to what to size what" that will help us
all get "a clearer vision" on these things, but the dust probably won't
settle before we are at least half-way to high resolution(*) on most
large and small consumer screens.
Today I apply these simple (and by now pretty old) "rules" for text sizing:
1: Base font-size declared on html container is around 100%. Usually
102% to partially balance out rounding differences in browsers. Clearly
no particular relations to any form of "px" there.
2: Only text containing elements must be based on font-size - headlines,
paragraphs, lists etc, and they are best font-sized in "%" of base as it
seems to be the most reliable unit. Those rounding differences in
browsers can not be completely eliminated, so "same size at default on
most screens" is the best we can achieve.
3: Stress-test across browser-land with minimum font-size at 200% - or
as far as each browser allows. On an "old" system/screen where "100% = 1
em = 16px" that means setting minimum font-size to at least '32px'.
4: Those "em" are useful for setting minimum and maximum width on some
containers to make somewhat sure text-content will fit reasonably well
also when design is subjected to severe stress in browsers, and that
available space on large screens can be used to expand on if/when page
is subjected to font resizing in any form.
Occasionally I also use "em" to size down images that should line up
somewhat correctly with line-height in regular text - set their height
in "em".
I never use "em" to emulate page-zoom and/or size images, as page-zoom
works perfectly well for that on its own.
5: Test everything with all tools (browsers etc.) till it breaks, before
deciding if the limits are wide enough for comfort.
No rules without exceptions, so my list of rules for text-sizing doesn't
have to contain more points.
(*) high resolution = 900dpi (above which increased resolution won't
achieve much), so half-way would be around 450dpi. They are not quite
there yet :-)
regards
Georg
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