[thelist] Re: CSS article

[Arlen.P.Walker at jci.com]

>Is there something wrong with doing this? How should text
>size be set? In ems?

On the off-chance that this isn't a troll....

The short answer is that points display differently in different platforms.
12pt type on a Windows machine is larger than 12 pt type on a Macintosh. So
you risk either putting huge text in a Windows browser or unreadably small
text in a Mac browser.

Should it be set in px or em? *That* one needs asbestos gloves to handle. I
prefer em, others prefer px, and there are extremely vocal supporters on
either side.

A concise, nonexhaustive list of reasons goes something like the following:

ems - in favor: presents text at a size the viewer is used to seeing,
possibly their preferred size
ems - against: no way of knowing what the size will be, so more testing is
required to ensure the design doesn't break easily.
px - in favor: absolutely consistant across all platforms (possible
exception is Opera/Mac)
px - against: User cannot always resize text to a comfortable reading size.

Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen.P.Walker at JCI.Com
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