[thelist] A pixel is not a pixel

[Charles F. Johnson]

Peter-Paul Koch <gassinaumasis at hotmail.com> typed:

> In my opinion this is still a bug, regardless of the newest pixel theory. I
> look at it from the opposite point of view: all browsers show the same text
> size except for Op5Mac, ergo: Op5Mac does not conform to the de-facto
> standard. Since Opera is still very much a minority, it cannot afford such
> things if it wants to grow. Ergo: they'll change it in a future release.

Exactly! Whether it's a bug or not, whether there's a rationale for scaling
pixels or not, there has to be a place for common sense in this. If every
other browser shows fonts at the same size, but Opera scales them into
unreadability, which browser are people going to choose?

The W3C says this about scaling pixels:

> If the pixel density of the output device is very different from that of a
> typical computer display, the user agent should rescale pixel values.

Key words: "very different." This part of the recommendation is clearly
intended to describe high-res output devices (e.g. printers, plotters,
future high-density display screens), *not* "typical computer displays."

charles johnson
lgf web design
http://littlegreenfootballs.com