Lachlan Hunt wrote Mon, 20 Feb 2006 22:32:22 +1100: > IMHO, any smaller than 'small' (approx 82%) is too small for main body copy
Title the following 'The meaning of "small"'. It's simply a collection of facts and observations about CSS small. The CSS2 spec recommended a 1.2 factor between adjacent sizes. http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/fonts.html#font-size-props Working backwards from a 100% default, this would theoretically have worked out to 83.3% for small. The 2.1 spec differed, and explicitly pointed this out: "implementation experience has demonstrated that a fixed ratio between adjacent absolute-size keywords is problematic, and this specification does NOT recommend such a fixed ratio...." http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/fonts.html#font-size-props Current browser implementations of CSS absolute/keyword sizes appear to be based upon Todd Fahrner's never completed "Toward a standard font size interval system". http://style.cleverchimp.com/font_size_intervals/altintervals.html http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/layout/style/nsStyleUtil.cpp#128 I've proposed a change for CSS3 for which no apparent interest has ever been shown: http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/css/W3C/css3-34new.html http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/css/W3C/css3-34discuss.html http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2005Nov/0044.html http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2005Nov/0052.html If implemented in Gecko it might be implemented via this bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=187256 In current Gecko versions, small has the following meanings: DefaultSize % px 9px 100 9 10px 90 9 11px 90.9 10 12px 83.3 10 13px 92.3 12 14px 85.7 12 15px 86.7 13 16px 81.2 13 17px or above 89, subject to rounding, which is of smaller impact as default size is increased http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/layout/style/nsStyleUtil.cpp#117 http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/auth/Moz/absolute-sizes-M.html In IE6, small has the following meanings at the default 96 DPI: DefaultSize % px pt smallest 91.7 11 smaller 92.3 12 medium 81.2 13.00-13.99 9.375-10.124 larger 84.2 16 largest 90.5 19 http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/auth/IE/pt2px096IE6.html http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/auth/IE/absolute-sizes-IE6.html In IE6, small has the following meanings at 120 DPI ("large fonts"): DefaultSize % px pt smallest 86.7 13 smaller 88.2 15 medium 85.0 17.00-17.99 9.875-10.474 larger 87.0 20 largest 85.2 23 http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/auth/IE/pt2px120IE6.html http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/auth/IE/absolute-sizes-IE6.html In Opera 9p2 Win, small has the following meanings installed at the default 96 DPI: DefaultSize % px pt 16px 81.2 13.00-13.99 9.380-10.129 http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/auth/O/pt2px096O.html In Konqueror 3.5, small has the following meanings @ 1024x768: DefaultSize DPI % px pt 12pt 96 87.9 14.00-14.99 10.500-11.124 12pt 108 89.2 16.00-16.99 10.667-11.333 12pt 120 90.2 18.00-18.99 10.800-11.399 http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/auth/K/pt2px096K.html http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/auth/K/pt2px108K.html http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/auth/K/pt2px120K.html Now all the above listed sizes for "small" are nominal, that is, "font-size" is a CSS property. Actual size however, requires a minimum of two dimensions in order to be visible, exactly two on a computer display. Therefore, the ubiquitous 13px/81.2% "size" for CSS small is actually 81.2% of each of the dimensions height and width, and so in fact the true _size_ is .812^2 or 66% of the default. As applied to the ubiquitous 16px/12pt default, we see a character box for medium has about 128 discreet px, 16 high by 8 wide, while for small, nominally 6.5 wide by 13 high, about 84.5, 66% of the default. -- "Love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:31 NIV Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/auth/auth ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
