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therefor 1.4 =14px?

Yep 1.4em is then the same as 14px. Easy! 😉

This is going on the fact that hopefully the user hasn’t messed with the default font sizes. Myself personally I have never ever changed the default font and sizing in my browsers ever. I just don’t see the point seeing as how CSS can set it all and as long as you leave the user able to enlarge fonts using their usual controls then I feel this is much better.

I can’t really think of why the defaults would be needed due to this fact.

Best wishes,

Mark

Not to mention that users have option to use their own CSS file for rending..eeek
but if the users messes with default font…then even pixels wont make a diff. If a user is determined to mess up their browser then that really becomes their problem.
This seems to be never ending issue.
But I do feel for elderly who work their OS under XXXXL fonts just to see things…

I think it’s more like religion than anything that equates to hard science. I’ve done it both ways—base size and em’s, and pixels. Most good browsers allow the user to increase/decrease font size, so it’s less of an issue today than in years past. I’ve also started doing layouts with a javascript text size button for users. Base text at 11 pixels seldom gets a complaint.

The base size at 62.5% is a very common way of doing things, here’s a great article explaining how to use it.

yes me too - this has got to be the best way to size fonts and maintain accessablity.

Are you trying to say I’m common Andy? 😉

Considering how much you post, I’d say you were almost as common as Lisa is around these parts 😉

If a user is determined to mess up their browser then that really becomes their problem.

Some of us have to in order to read anything on the web.  Especially since some designers make a habit of mixing very small font sizes with very low contrast colors. 

But I do feel for elderly who work their OS under XXXXL fonts just to see things…

It’s not just the elderly that suffer from poor vision.

This is something that I feel strongly about (I think PX and I have .. discussed this before too =) ); it’s frustrating to see a beautiful, interesting site and be completely unable to view it because of set font sizes.  This is the biggest problem with those that insist on making content as images, or in Flash.

Well I can happily say that I like to go for a slightly larger base font size and try to do away with Flash and images wherever I can so hopefully any sites I make you will be able to read Lisa 😉

I actually prefer fonts to be slightly larger even though I can read the itsy bitsy ones that people use on the net. I just don’t like the fact that when it is that small that not only do the fonts just look wrong and fonts are a beautiful thing to look at but also you get just WAAAAAY too many characters per line and that makes it even harder to read.

Best wishes,

Mark

I think anyone who has serious vision problems will have found a way to resize text, an average elderly person maybe not. I find teenie weenie fonts, like on some flash designed websites to be just annoying, like pixel fonts. I guess it’s an art form, sometimes it works, but usually not.
I’ve been working with the default stylesheet posted on w3:
http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/sample.html
And trying not to fuss too much about it, but many times tweaking it to be a little bit tighter on the paddings and margins.

This is the biggest problem with those that insist on making content as images…

the very first words spoken in my college class exposure to HTML in 1999. This, I have never done 😊 but have seen it done by print (transcending to web) designers ‘for the love of the font’.
I do highly agree (not just for elderly) that people should not be deprived from reading,learning, sharing content nor should they strain their vision just to read a few paragraphs.

In general I think high-resolution LCD monitors render the fonts smaller in comparison to an old school CRT.
Those are the differences I noticed when I finally got to upgrade monitors. Smaller fonts became tiny fonts on the LCD, too tiny. I’m not sure whether it would make a difference on the LCD monitor whether it was %, EM, or PX doing the sizing in the CSS, probably not. I’ve never done an elastic layout in EM’s but it is intriguing. Newer monitors seem to bump up the whole design, in firefox there’s an option, to allow the fonts to force the whole layout bigger, or flow in the container. Also, just noticed this there’s a setting under tools | options in there to pick a minimum font size by pixels, I think I’ll set that at home, but not on my design/work box I could make a “too small” specification and not realize it otherwise.

I think PX and I have .. discussed this before too =)

That we have 😊

I have a MacBook-Pro 17” with the high-def option. I have to resize the fonts no matter how they are specified. As screen resolution increases, everything gets smaller. My point has always been that one should research and use the most common font sizes, the sizes used by the most read/used sites, or major copy-heavy sites. Those that have vision problems or high-res screens will make the adjustment for those sites and that same adjustment for you.

I now have em’s in my primary site, heh, and i even did_NOT_ test it. but seems that text will fit to the present layout when (IE) sets the largest to font size. Anyhoo, redesign is on its way “behind the walls” so there i might go seriously with em’s - still that needs a lot of tests and few users to test that it dont break my future layout!

Cheers:
- Tuittu

The bottom line is that we, as web developers, need to do our best to cater to all viewers. This includes those that change their browser sizes. I don’t consider this any more of an inconvenience than making sure pages look the same in ie as they do in safari or firefox; its just the way it is. That being said, as long as a cross-website text size standard is established and the framework is designed to be malleable enough to handle different sizes then life is good.

Oh the pain of losing such control…

I know it is not in favor but I too specify fonts in pixel sizes. I typically go with 12px for content and 14px up to 28px for headings depending on which tag it is. I just have not been able to let go of the control. I know there are good looking sites that allow for a more flexible font sizing but I still can’t let go of the control. Funny thing is I used to work as a contractor doing Independent Verification and Validation testing of Government systems and one of the things we hammered on was usability and accessibility. lol… funny how things change when you are on the other side of the testing…

After some experiments I am starting to like the em approach to font sizing.
Now, looking at some of the examples from alistapart I see a mix of em and px for sizing.
Can someone explain to why?
eg.

h1 {
   font-size: 1em;
   width: 10em;
   height: 100px;
   text-indent: -1234em;
   background-image: url(whatever.jpg);
   }

looking at the

  width: 10em;
  height: 100px;

I don’t get it….why is the height not set in ems or width in px?
In other words if they are good for ‘font sizing’ should we not then use ems for positioning as well?
This is has been a quest for me…can’t quite figure out these arbitrary combos of px/em.
Thanks so much!

The height is that of the whole h1 element, not just the font. I suppose they don’t want to change that, even if you choose a larger font (where em would be larger).