Forum Moderators: not2easy
I usually use px, but that disables the text-size option in IE. Is that alright or is there a better alternative?
These are the values I know of:
xx-small
x-small
small
medium
large
x-large
xx-large
smaller
larger
pt
px
em
%
A much debated issue: My preference is em's or % - About .8/80% minimum for menus and .9/90% for body text.
Nick
I use em, despite www.richinstyle.com/masterclass/lengths.html advising against it. I prefer it because it is proportional to the typeface; whitespace is preserved well when the user resizes. It does, however, cause problems for users who change the Internet Explorer font-size setting from "medium" to something else (super-tiny or super-gigantic). Setting {font-size: 100%} on the body tag makes things incrementally better.
The only time I use pixels is for colored borders, and the only time I use inches is for print margins.
[edited by: choster at 8:28 pm (utc) on Sep. 3, 2003]
What about the print media? At the moment I'm using pt.
despite www.richinstyle.com/masterclass/lengths.html advising against it.
Actually, they only say you shouldn't use it if you are serving that style sheet up to IE3 (all 9 copies still in use) or NS4 (which you can easily test for or just accept that NS4 and IE3 users won't have fonts sized as you envision).
Otherwise, they say it is the BEST unit of length.
I usually use px, but that disables the text-size option in IE
And fonts that can't be resized is a common reason that I leave a site that I would otherwise be interested in, so I think you did well to ask about it here and, in case I ever end up at one of your sites, thanks for saving my eyes!
Tom
I use px because it makes your pages look nicer.
That should read "look nicer to me on my machine, while also making my site inaccessbile to elderly people and visually impaired."
I'm neither, but I spend a lot of time staring at a computer screen and since I run at a fairly high resolution, fixed font sites are often too much trouble for me to read and I just go elsewhere. You may like the look, but you may also be losing customers.
Tom
I'll just go find another site if I can't read yours... ;)
Nick
I use px because it makes your pages look nicer. Only px assures you how many pixels high your fonts will come out in the browser.
really? ;)
It's only IE that doesn't resize px as far as I know, and apart from agreeing with what everyone else has said about "if they can't read it, they'll leave"
I think that any reply under a thread title about accessibility where the designer wants to be "assured" of font-sizes, shows lack of respect for the entire accessibilty issue.
Suzy
you reminded me of this post [webmasterworld.com]I made last time this came up!.. I was a little bit fraught ;) but it's still true!
Is there any way you can set a minimum size (e.g. with CSS2)? And if so, which browsers and versions support this? Because this could give the best of both worlds, setting a minimum in px/pt and the standard size in em's/%.
Furthermore, it's very rare for sites to be optimized to work correctly when people change their font sizes. I played around with that once upon a time, and found that so many sites I visited didn't look right.
I don't think very many people change their font settings. If your site is inaccessible to 1%, but looks better for 99%, I'd go with the 99%.
using a js pull-down navigation menu, the menu options are far too big on macie and safari (i assume it's a mac thing).
is there a recommended text height for button elements? are they as sensitive as body text when it comes to people having troubles reading them if i specify a px height?
does this make any sense? ;)
