Re: Making pt a non-physical unit

On 2010/01/10 09:29 (GMT-0500) Tab Atkins Jr. composed:

> I just through of pt
> as "the weird unit that Word uses for font sizes". 

Windows' UI and OSS apps and DTEs also use pt, as do several web browsers'
prefs (e.g. Konqueror, Epiphany). Native IE sizes are in pt, which is why
small, x-small, xx-small, smaller, smallest, medium, large, x-large,
xx-large, larger, largest, 1.2em, 76%, and <font size=*> in IE are bigger
when when Windows' DPI is increased.

Before CSS, pt was probably the only unit for sizing text familiar to 99.9%
of the world, which before WordPerfect and Word and the IBM PC was probably
more familiar with Elite and Pica than pt. The world would be a better place
for web users if the original and subsequent CSS specs had never provided px
for sizing anything but images (or certain legacy CJK fonts).
-- 
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious
people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any
other."                      John Adams, 2nd US President

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

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

Received on Sunday, 10 January 2010 16:55:05 UTC