On 2008/02/18 13:15 (GMT-0500) Jeff Blaine apparently typed: > How does one address IE7 (for one) when the user has > configured his/her Windows system to use 120DPI fonts > instead of the default 96DPI?
Please remember that CSS is officially designed to *suggest* presentation, not *control* presentation. The user has ultimate control. He has the power to limit, override, or totally disregard your CSS. You can see that doz offers DPI adjustment as a means of changing object sizes, including fonts. It describes 120 DPI as "large size" - as opposed to 96 DPI, which on older systems is called "small size", and newer systems "normal size". DPI adjustment is just one facet of personalization of personal computers, but a good one to highlight the fact that they are just that, personal, and subject to customization, which means expecting anything in particular about their browsers' behavior is simply not warranted. > It's my unconfirmed understanding that Opera does the > same (arguably wrong) thing as IE7. Whether wrong or not is immaterial, as it's a fact. Of course, customizability of fonts in Opera is considerably more extensive in Opera than in IE or even the Geckos and Webkits. > 120DPI > http://www.kickflop.net/temp/moopoint-ie7.jpg > http://www.kickflop.net/temp/moopoint-firefox2.jpg > 96DPI > (No links -- both IE7 and Firefox render properly and look) > (proper like the firefox2 image above ) > In the sites displayed above, all body text sizing is set to > browser default (font-size: 100%;) > Can anything be done from the CSS/XHTML end? CSS has no way to know DPI. The only thing you can do exclusively with CSS is the old-fashioned, user-unfriendly method of sizing everything in px, which disregards user preferences, annoying users, and ignores that modern browsers can enforce minimum font sizes, discombobulating much of or everything on a page. So, what you can do is embrace the fact that much is unknowable, and size *everything* in em. The relationship between text size and window size will vary somewhat from user to user, but it really won't go beyond a certain range, a range that will usually keep lines to a reasonable and comfortable reading word count length. Images won't always look optimal, but if you design reasonably and test extensively, the overall perspective and usability should remain within a usable range across varying default font sizes and window sizes, and most users of your designs should be happy users. If your native display resolution is high, such that 120 DPI is closer to right than the more traditional 96, keeping it at 120 actually provides you extra ease in testing. By keeping the defaults in both IE and Gecko, and Opera for that matter, you automatically see and test in two very common but different user environments. Don't forget, it's only you and other web developers who will see the differences between IE and other browsers. Normal users don't open web pages in more than one browser at a time, so few will discover any differences that may exist, and those that manage to find them aren't likely to care as long as it works OK in their favorite. If you think the difference between FF and IE is bad now, and you run XP or W2K or Linux, try this: 1-install the latest Firefox 3 beta 2-if you aren't already running at 120 DPI, make that switch 3-open your site in all browsers, noting the apparent differences and similarities 4-switch from 120 DPI (125%) to 150% (144 DPI) 5-repeat #3 above The difference in FF3 will be unmistakable! O_O What might happen using Vista in high resolution environments I have no idea. :-p -- "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16 NIV Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ css-discuss [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ List policies -- http://css-discuss.org/policies.html Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt/
