Re: Using em or percent for properties that need to change

At 04:24 PM 17/08/2004 +0100, Andy Budd wrote:

>Patrick Lauke wrote:
>
>>I'd say no. Optimal width of, say, a column of text should really relate
>>to the size of the font used, in my opinion. Hence, it would ideally
>>be defined in ems or ens...so elastic or semi elastic layouts.
>>Again, potentially a good idea for sites to define more than one stylesheet:
>>an elastic or semi elastic one, and a fixed width one...
>
>But is that an accessibility issue, a usability issue, or a personal 
>preference?

I'd call that a 'prevent the page from breaking' issue.  If you have an 
absolute width for say, the navigation column, and an elastic width for the 
fonts; when the fonts are expanded enough, a long word can overflow the 
containing box and overlap the content in the next box.  Been there, done 
that and it is very ugly indeed.  I like that margins and paddings are in 
px, that makes much sense.  But all basic widths should be of a similar 
type (be it em or % or even px) or layout can die in your lovely css very 
very quickly.

Lynn

Received on Tuesday, 17 August 2004 22:58:48 UTC