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Why use a percetage for Font size?
Posted 13 May 2006 00:16:14
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13 May 2006 00:16:14 Thin Lizzy posted:
<font face='Arial'>can someone tell me why we should use a percent for a font size?</font id='Arial'>
Replies
Replied 15 May 2006 21:17:30
15 May 2006 21:17:30 Joss R replied:
<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
<font face='Arial'>can someone tell me why we should use a percent for a font size?
</font id='Arial'>
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote>
Percentages are a relative size rather than a fixed one. Relative sizes display better on monitors with a higher dpi and, also allow the user to scale the text on your site. A nice feature for those of us who have vision difficulties with smaller print.
A fixed size such as 10px does not scale well.
So if you use a percentage in the body tag and then ems for your font sizes your site content will be scalable in browsers.
For a more indepth discussion on this subject try a google search like this one (include the quotes) - "percent for font size". You should find enough explanations in there to satisfy!! Or you could check this out: www.thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/typography/. Read the entire thing - it's very enlightening!
Good luck!
**********<i>
Learn to see in another's calamity the ills which you should avoid.</i>
Edited by - sgiandhu on 15 May 2006 21:50:04
<font face='Arial'>can someone tell me why we should use a percent for a font size?
</font id='Arial'>
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote>
Percentages are a relative size rather than a fixed one. Relative sizes display better on monitors with a higher dpi and, also allow the user to scale the text on your site. A nice feature for those of us who have vision difficulties with smaller print.
A fixed size such as 10px does not scale well.
So if you use a percentage in the body tag and then ems for your font sizes your site content will be scalable in browsers.
For a more indepth discussion on this subject try a google search like this one (include the quotes) - "percent for font size". You should find enough explanations in there to satisfy!! Or you could check this out: www.thenoodleincident.com/tutorials/typography/. Read the entire thing - it's very enlightening!
Good luck!
**********<i>
Learn to see in another's calamity the ills which you should avoid.</i>
Edited by - sgiandhu on 15 May 2006 21:50:04
Replied 16 May 2006 10:15:18
16 May 2006 10:15:18 Thin Lizzy replied:
Thanks. Does 1P mean 1 pixel?
Replied 18 May 2006 19:47:51
18 May 2006 19:47:51 Joss R replied:
1 pixel would be 1px - but that would be an extremely small character to read on or offline!
Another reason to not use pixels is that on a mac and a pc they display differently, so they can have an impact on how your site looks in either platform. If you want your site to be readable cross-browser, percentages and ems are the way to go.
________________________
DW8 | DWMX | PHP | MacOS
<i>Learn to see in another's calamity the ills which you should avoid</i>
Another reason to not use pixels is that on a mac and a pc they display differently, so they can have an impact on how your site looks in either platform. If you want your site to be readable cross-browser, percentages and ems are the way to go.
________________________
DW8 | DWMX | PHP | MacOS
<i>Learn to see in another's calamity the ills which you should avoid</i>