Absolute/Relative Sizes

• From: Chris Ridpath <chris.ridpath@utoronto.ca>
• Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 16:03:23 -0400
• To: "WAI WCAG List" <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
• Message-ID: <019f01c42eee$310b1300$b040968e@WILDDOG>

There doesn't seem to be anything in the WCAG2 that deals with the issue of
relative vs. absolute sizes.

I know there has been some discussion of the issue but it appears that there
hasn't been a resolution in either the WCAG or HTML techs documents. Don
Evans was discussing the issue with me and we were unsure how to create
techniques for authors.

Me feeling is that there is not one simple rule that applies. Sometimes it's
OK to specify sizes in pixels, for example margins. Other times it's not OK
to specify sizes in pixels, for example font sizes.

According to spec, pixels are defined as a relative unit of measurement, not
absolute. This has clouded the issue and I wonder if we need to change our
terminology to deal with this. (Hi Joe.)

Cheers,
Chris

Received on Friday, 30 April 2004 16:03:57 UTC