On 2012/07/25 21:06 (GMT-0700) David Hucklesby composed:
Taking Richard Rutter's original idea to make the base font-size 62.5%,
Rutter's "idea" is one of the worst things to ever happen to the web:
http://fm.no-ip.com/SS/Clagnut/bbcnSS.html
which translates to 10px on most desktop computers running at the common 96
DPI setting, I suggest a modern alternative. It looks like this:
html { font-size: 125%; }
Georg has a nice write-up explaining the problem with 62.5%--
<http://www.gunlaug.no/contents/wd_1_03_04.html>
Yes, I'm using a nominal 20px for equally easy conversion. But wait, there's
more!
For the majority of text on a page to display at 16px I'd use a font-size of
80% on the BODY element. For 18px I'd use 90%[1].
If you're thinking in px, you're still using a "for print" design
paradigm/methodology.
Today, nearly all browsers understand REM units. They are relative to the
root (HTML) size of (nominal) 20px. Easy-peasy; fewer fractions, and no
problems with cascading percentages.
For the rest--IE 8 and earlier, and Opera Mini, keywords should work well
enough, since you won't get "pixel perfection" on those browsers
anyway--whatever that might mean. IE will re-size text set with keywords,
but not with pixels.
And again, "resizing" is just a way of describing a defense that wouldn't be
necessary in the absence of an offense.
Perhaps this is just nonsense.
Exactly.
But it just has to be better than 62.5%.
It takes it from inane to a bit better than inane, while remaining rude.
Either way the net effect on body is something other than the user's
preference aka default.
Computers use base 2, not decimal. If you want to maximize rounding
differences, by all means keep thinking in decimal.
However if you want to minimize rounding differences (remembering they cannot
be eliminated, since some browsers truncate decimal places beyond some
arbitrary number, e.g. two; see also [1]), think like a computer, in base
two, octal (eighths) or hex (sixteenths).
The last correlates nicely with the traditional 16px defaults and 96 DPI (as
well as their integer multiples) where 1px equals 1/16em, or .0625em, and
24px equals 1.5em, 12px equals .75em, 10px equals .625em, 36px equals 2.25em,
etc.
Binary also is a factor in pt @ 72/inch, where at 96 DPI, 1/6" is 12pt which
happens to be 16px as well.
[1] http://fm.no-ip.com/Auth/Font/font-rounding.html
--
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)
Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!
Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/
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