Felix,
I thought for the sake of beginners who might subscribe to this list we ought to
discuss this in a new thread.
>> html {font-size: 16px;}
>> Then all REMs on the page will be 16px no matter what eles.
>
>Not quite. Notwithstanding that styling text in px ignores the wide variation
>in effective pixel density and rudely disregards the visitor's optimum text
>size, as presumptively established via his UA's default size setting,
I'm sure you fully understand what the REM unit is, why it was developed, how it
works and how if varies fundamentally from the EM unit.
But just in case others don't let's take a look at a few paragraphs from Eric
Meyer's new CSS booklet titled "Values, Units and Colors"
<http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920027621.do>
On page 12 under the heading "Relative Length Units":
" The rem unit
Like the em unit, the rem unit is based on declared font size. The
difference—and it’s a
doozy—is that whereas em is calculated using the font size of the element to
which it’s
applied, rem is always calculated using the root element. In HTML, that’s the
html
element. Thus, declaring any element to have font-size: 1rem; is setting it to
have the
same font-size value as the root element of the document.
<some code samples snipped>
Basically, rem acts as a reset for font size: no matter what relative font
sizing has happened
to the ancestors of an element, giving it font-size: 1rem; will put it right
back
where the root element is set. This will usually be the user’s default font
size, unless of
course you (or the user) have set the root element to a specific font size.
For example, given this declaration, 1rem will always be equivalent to 13px:
html {font-size: 13px;}
However, given this declaration, 1rem will always be equivalent to
three-quarters the
user’s default font size:
html {font-size: 75%;}"
>astute
>users with competent UAs can avoid the need to apply zoom to restore some
>legibility, at least potentially, via a user stylesheet containing the
>following:
>
>html,
>body
> {font-size: medium !important}
>
>In my non-testing UAs this will usually result in a rem size of 20px or 24px.
>
As I'm sure you also know 'medium' is computed as the default font-size set for
the User Agent, so it will actually be 16px in the vast majority of cases.
>That simplicity could easily be expanded to include much more:
>html,
>body,
>#body,
>p,
>td,
>pre,
>code,
>li,
>dd,
>#content,
>#main
> {font: medium/normal sans-serif !important}
Why in the world would you force your visitors to see only the default
sans-serif font?
You're denying them the opportunity to experience the advances in modern web
typography.
With the huge selection of fonts designed for or tuned/tweaked for use on the
screen restricting them to only one default font is very "rude" indeed.
>
>The result though can be a big mess of overlapping and/or hidden content if
>container sizing is also done in px.
>--
To be honest I'm not sure what you mean by this. When exactly does setting an
element's size in pixels result in what you describe? I really am curious.
>
> Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!
>
>Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ <http://fm.no-ip.com/>
You might want to check the links on some of your pages...many are dead. Also,
most of the pages you classify as "friendly"
(in terms of font-size) are using font sizes equal to and in some cases less
than the pages that are listed as 'unfriendly'.
Interestingly the Nielsen Norman Group page you link to that's titled "Let Users
Control Font Size" sets font-size explicitly
to 14px, not 'medium', not 'large'...but in pixels.
I would love to discuss the "tyranny of the minority" that Mr. Nielsen and his
cohorts represent, but that's a different thread.
Eric
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