Font Size Authoring

Discussion of issues and recommendations

Written 2000.02.18

>  this is why many, many designers are going to stick with pixels,
> even though pixels are not recommended by the W3C, and even though pixels
> have their own problems, particularly for linux users.

My opinion on pixels has changed a couple of times over the years.

I try to encourage people to use relative font sizes - noting that for most
content, (e.g. reading a news article or a scientific paper), it really
doesn't matter that particular text is a particular number of pixels.  It
matters much more that, 1. things like headings are larger (relative) than
body copy, and that 2. the reader can read it, and adjust it to their needs.

On the other hand, I am also asked very frequently - how do I make this layout
look *exactly* the same on MacIE, WinIE etc. typically because the designers
are building some sort of user interface to an application on the web which
requires more precise layout than traditional text content.

And the only answer which comes close to solving that problem for the screen
media type is the CSS 'px' unit.

So I've been telling those people, use 'px' if you have, but it isn't really a
good idea because of accessibility etc. etc.

To most people who haven't done much with CSS, this comes off as, "you can use
this kludge, but it has other problems", so they wonder why they should care
about CSS at all.

Not any more.

We have implemented Text Zoom, which I strongly believe to be *the right
answer* in terms of user/author balance (please redirect flames to me as to
avoid noise on the beta list).

Now I feel I can tell people that want/need precise layout: use pixels - they
work great, they get you what you want.

Usability issues with pixels?  Not for long.  We've solved it, and sometime in
mid-March, millions of Mac web users will have the benefit of that solution.
It is only pragmatic to expect that competitors and other implementations will
attempt to come up with similar solutions as well.

So, my font sizing answers to web designers presently are:

1. Are your pages content heavy, with lots of stuff to read?  Use relative
font sizes, they work pretty well, and provide maximal end user
customizability.

2. Are your pages user interface heavy, with little bits (like buttons) to
read here and there, requiring much more precise layout?  Use pixel font
sizes, they will get you the precision you want*.  For all other length units
other than font-size, use 'em' units - you should be able to do the math on
the font-size in pixels that a particular element is inheriting, and work that
into the precise value you need in terms of 'em's.  This makes your page
easier to maintain and change, should you want to change the font-size later
and have things "resize" accordingly.

More and more, the few older browsers out there which have problems with 'px'
units are diminishing into the noise, as they should.

I feel things are getting better - I am having to give web designers fewer and
fewer caveats when answering their questions.