[thelist] Higher Screen Resolutions

Felix Miata mrmazda at earthlink.net
Thu May 20 14:45:33 CDT 2010


On 2010/05/20 20:16 (GMT+0100) Martin Burns composed:

> Felix Miata wrote:

>> The web is a fluid media where pixels need have no relevance

> Which will be true when we have perfectly scalable images. Or you don't
> use them.

It seems most who make this statement fail to comprehend that to a high
resolution user, a too small to see unscaled image is little different from
that very same image scaled up to a size that _could_ be adequate for his
eyesight and screen DPI. IOW, the same negative impact on high resolution
users results whether images are too small, or scale poorly, which is a major
shame, since high resolution equates to high quality, which _should_ equate
to a better web experience.

While imperfect scaling results are common, it's already been true for well
over a decade that browsers can scale images. Imperfect scaling of images in
most cases is vastly superior to the hidden text and/or overlapping text or
other rendering brokenness that typically results when browser defenses
against too small text are applied against common site styles. In most cases
adequate scaling results are possible just by ensuring the base image size
from which scaling is performed is adequate for the most common range of use
cases.

> Line length is also significant - you'll need to scale it
> relative to font size (and kerming) to ensure high levels of readability.

Appropriate line length is more or less automatic as a result of competent em
design.

> In modern browsers (Chrome/Safari/FF anyway), fixed sizes + browser
> scaling works tremendously well for most of these challenges.

Browser scaling has been automatic for years, if only allowed by site styles
not trying to override, or by disregarding default sizes entirely.

If by scaling you mean page zoom, as opposed to arguably inferior text-only
zoom or minimum font sizes that some prefer, these types of scaling are
defense mechanisms provided by competent browsers. Defenses aren't required
in the absence of offense, which in the case of the web is pervasive
disregard (sizing in px) or designer "correction of inappropriate defaults"
(base text sizing at anything other than 100% of user defaults).
-- 
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/


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