LGTM3 On Wednesday, January 21, 2026 at 5:01:04 PM UTC+1 Rick Byers wrote:
> Nice! Text sizing has been a longstanding wart in the web with it's > unpredictability and inconsistent behavior. Thank you for investing to > rationalize it! > LGTM2 > > > On Tue, Jan 20, 2026 at 5:37 PM 'Dan Clark' via blink-dev < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Thank you for the excellent explainer. It's a shame this behavior can't >> be the default, but due to compat an opt-in makes sense. LGTM1. >> >> On Thursday, January 15, 2026 at 4:48:26 PM UTC-8 Chromestatus wrote: >> >>> *Contact emails* >>> [email protected], [email protected] >>> >>> *Explainer* >>> >>> https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/blob/main/css-env-1/explainers/meta-text-scale.md >>> >>> *Specification* >>> https://drafts.csswg.org/css-fonts-5/#text-scale-meta >>> >>> *Summary* >>> Makes the root element's default font size scale in proportion to both >>> the operating system's and browser's text scale setting. This allows pages >>> that follow best practices around font-relative units (i.e. use rem and em >>> for font sizes and page elements that should change with the user's text >>> size preferences) to respect the user's OS-level text scale setting. This >>> also causes the browser to disable existing browser-based mechanisms (i.e. >>> full-page zoom on windows) and heuristics (i.e. text autosizing on mobile). >>> Now web developers can signal to the browser that the page is constructed >>> in a way (i.e. with rem and em) that will scale well across various >>> user-selected font size preferences. Similar to env(preferred-text-scale), >>> which provides authors with a way to access the text scale; this API >>> extends that by enabling scaling via the root element's default font size >>> and opting-out of automatic text scaling. >>> >>> *Blink component* >>> Blink>Accessibility >>> <https://issues.chromium.org/issues?q=customfield1222907:%22Blink%3EAccessibility%22> >>> >>> *Web Feature ID* >>> Missing feature >>> >>> *Motivation* >>> Authors currently don't have an easy way to respect the OS-level text >>> scale setting on all devices. It is practically impossible to detect and >>> respect this on desktop. On mobile, there is env(preferred-text-scale), but >>> authors would need to use it in calc() functions to set the root font-size >>> and some media queries. They would need a lot of guidance to ensure it gets >>> used correctly and there would be little variation in how they would use >>> it. Therefore, it would be much easier for authors if they could continue >>> to use font-relative units as they do now and the UA initial font-size was >>> redefined to incorporate the OS-level text scale setting. >>> >>> *Initial public proposal* >>> https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/12380 >>> >>> *TAG review* >>> https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/1172 >>> >>> *TAG review status* >>> Issues addressed >>> >>> *Risks* >>> >>> >>> *Interoperability and Compatibility* >>> Compat – no issues as it's a new feature Interop – none really – even if >>> other browsers don't implement it's a progressive enhancement >>> >>> *Gecko*: No signal ( >>> https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/1326) >>> >>> *WebKit*: No signal ( >>> https://github.com/WebKit/standards-positions/issues/587) >>> >>> *Web developers*: Positive ( >>> https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/12380) Positive emoji votes >>> on the initial proposal >>> >>> *Other signals*: >>> >>> *Activation* >>> We intend to do some outreach after the feature has baked on Stable. >>> Some ideas are discussed at the end of this TAG review comment: >>> https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/1172#issuecomment-3667481287 >>> >>> *WebView application risks* >>> >>> Does this intent deprecate or change behavior of existing APIs, such >>> that it has potentially high risk for Android WebView-based applications? >>> No higher risk. This opt-in feature has WebView-specific behaviors. The >>> goal of the WebView-specific parts is to allow authors to ensure their >>> pages render identically on Chrome and WebView. Today renderings may not be >>> identical due to some WebView font-sizing quirks. See commit message at >>> https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/7280046 for >>> more info. >>> >>> >>> *Debuggability* >>> *No information provided* >>> >>> *Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, >>> Mac, Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and Android WebView)?* >>> Yes >>> >>> *Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests >>> <https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/testing/web_platform_tests.md>?* >>> No >>> Not tested in WPT because there is no API to simulate changing user font >>> size preferences. The wpt_internal tests are at >>> https://source.chromium.org/search?q=file:meta&sq=&ss=chromium%2Fchromium%2Fsrc:third_party%2Fblink%2Fweb_tests%2Fwpt_internal%2Fcss%2Fcss-fonts%2F >>> >>> There are other automated WebView java tests and C++ Unit tests. >>> >>> *Flag name on about://flags* >>> *No information provided* >>> >>> *Finch feature name* >>> TextScaleMetaTag >>> >>> *Rollout plan* >>> Will ship enabled for all users >>> >>> *Requires code in //chrome?* >>> False >>> >>> *Tracking bug* >>> https://crbug.com/430566925 >>> >>> *Measurement* >>> Added WebDX UseCounter in >>> https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/7267330 >>> >>> *Estimated milestones* >>> Shipping on desktop 146 >>> Shipping on Android 146 >>> Shipping on WebView 146 >>> >>> *Anticipated spec changes* >>> >>> Open questions about a feature may be a source of future web compat or >>> interop issues. Please list open issues (e.g. links to known github issues >>> in the project for the feature specification) whose resolution may >>> introduce web compat/interop risk (e.g., changing to naming or structure of >>> the API in a non-backward-compatible way). >>> *No information provided* >>> >>> *Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status* >>> https://chromestatus.com/feature/5112244702674944?gate=5080483318857728 >>> >>> *Links to previous Intent discussions* >>> Intent to Prototype: >>> https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/CAOZbSt0S4JY2pHY23SVKTFR63Q3ak5Z8RXmqqNhHkXigb2feKw%40mail.gmail.com >>> >>> >>> This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status >>> <https://chromestatus.com>. >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "blink-dev" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion visit >> https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/4ca24d8b-07e9-4da3-86d7-5f92f5fc7a5fn%40chromium.org >> >> <https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/4ca24d8b-07e9-4da3-86d7-5f92f5fc7a5fn%40chromium.org?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "blink-dev" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/16c00f9f-0bc5-40d4-a1ee-4e179b10f08dn%40chromium.org.
