Text zoom

is it possible to prevent

[Maxformed]

Well, I was thinking our new site was fine, until someone pointed out the zooming the text to more than 100% screwed the whole thing up. Is there any way to prevent this?

Do you think it's a common issue?

Any ideas on how to go from here appreciated.

Thanks,
Max

[drbrain]

The best way to go is to accept that some people's eyes aren't as good as yours, and design your site accordingly.

In IE you can prevent text zoom by choosing your font sizes in the correct units (I don't know which units it is). In Mozilla, you cannot prevent text zoom. (What's really fun is specifying border widths in ems.)

If you can't make a completely flow-based design, then make sure your site degrades gracefully.

[Maxformed]

Yes, I tried to make larger pixel sizes (and that is fine - even for my boss). It just seems a fluke. Everything will still be seen, it will just be ugly at 200 percent.

Thanks,
Max

[TGecho]

My position is that if someone wants to do something unusual in their browser options, let them. However, I don't worry about making stay pretty, just make sure it's usable.

[grahamstewart]

Its all about user choice.

The base font size should be up to the user to decide.
That way they can pick one that is easily readable on their screen, with their eyes, in their lighting conditions.

Don't fight it, embrace it!

I specify all font sizes in relative units (em or %) and design my layout to be fluid so that it can cope with different text sizes. Its the way forward.

[john316]

I use text zoom occasionally and really don't expect the site to "hold together", my only goal at that time is to READ it, layout is not even an issue.

Others may feel the same.

added> If someone is going to go through the hassle of zooming to read your content, why try to hamper that?

[SuzyUK]

Well I'm in the enviable position of being able to bring myself back down to earth! (i.e. to remind myself that we may know our browsers but not everyone does, even those it seems, that should!)

I've just had a complaint about one of the sites I designed, from a viewer who said the text was too small (it's average as far as I can gather)..

but guess what, it's designed with ems (main body text is, 0.8em)

Maxformed

Do you think it's a common issue?

This site is a very small community website, and if I had to do percentages I wouldn't like the odds, so I'd be aware that if they're not complaining about the text-size they will be complaining about the design..go for "accessible", you can argue/rationalise both sides then...

btw I've got an email to write...now where's my soap box! ;)
Suzy

[grahamstewart]

Yup, user education is also an issue. Mainly becuase so few sites respond to text sizing that they just don't know about it.

So I just added a section on the site I am designing that explains how to make the text bigger in IE, NN and Opera.

[danny]

If I come across a site that won't allow text-resizing, I'll
simply go somewhere else. font-size: medium is pretty much unreadable on my set up.