[thelist] percents or pixels?

[Arlen.P.Walker at jci.com]

>Two questions: Is not the resolution set by your monitor, not the browser,
>anyway? Text set to point, pixel, whatever size, is smaller at a
resolution
>of 1024x768 than at 800x600 and larger on a 19" monitor than a 15" set at
>the same resolution.

We're talking resolution of fonts, here, not pictures. Windows renders
fonts as if 1 point = 1.33 screen pixels, while MacOS does it 1:1. The
number of pixels per inch is controlled by the monitor, but the number of
pixels per 72 points (a "font-inch," if you will) is controlled by the OS
and is either 72 or 96.

>Is it not the case (playing devil's advocate briefly) that such hardware
>considerations actually outweigh the differences between browser
performance
>and settings, and the best we can hope for is a compromise that *most*
>people can make some sense of our designs?

DPI of monitors today goes typically from around 80 to a little over 100,
so the comparative effect is about equal.

>And how do you toggle between these values in IE5 and Netscape/Moz, it is
a
>feature I haven't come across?

It's on the "fonts" preference page in the preferences.

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

Arlen.P.Walker at JCI.Com
----------------------------------------------
In God we trust; all others must provide data.
----------------------------------------------
Opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.
If JCI had an opinion on this, they'd hire someone else to deliver it.