Re: For want of a better word

On Tue, Jun 08, 2004 at 02:06:42PM +0100, Rotan Hanrahan wrote:
> I don't think Dave intended the diagram to be an example, but merely
> an eye-catching picture to introduce his discussion. One wouldn't use
> image scaling to scale a page that was originally composed for a big
> screen, unless you're client also possessed pan/zoom abilities. And
> even then, one can get lost trying to understand a big page with
> pan/zoom.  I've tried such technologies in the past, and while
> initially impressive, one soon gets "tunnel vision" sensations.

Ok, that CNET page is a bad example as its complex multi-columned design
isn't good practice IMO. It's emulating a magazine, when it's the web.
There is big difference in the medium. Ok, that's debatable... lets move
on.

What about a page like my homepage:
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/hendry/

Text is allowed to flow, so there should be no need for panning
horizontally (to a degree).

http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/hendry/work/thesis/pictures/simulator1.bmp
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/hendry/work/thesis/pictures/6600-xhmtl-1.jpg
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/hendry/work/thesis/pictures/6600-opera-1.jpg

Has my XHTML web page scaled? 
Has the UA scaled the web page correctly?
Or should I ask if the device has correctly scaled it?

> Scaling brings its own problems, and adaptation (possibly involving
> restructuring and other manipulations) might be the only viable
> approach.

If people made webpages like mine, would it need adaption? =)

> And another aside: the people who design fonts will tell you that you
> can't arbitrarily change the scaling of characters. The quality of the
> result depends on many factors, including the absolute pixel
> resolution, the pixel orientation, the number of curve points in the
> glyphs etc. So you might find that a font at 120% is not as legible as
> the same font at 112% on a particular device. This peculiarity varies
> according to the device, the font, the colours, the use of
> anti-aliasing, etc....

I've noticed this actually. :/

If we have problems scaling text (seemingly), isn't that worrying for
device independence? Should we not be really getting text right before
moving on?

Otherwise can I reasonably suggest that people do not touch their font
size settings in pursuit of device independence? Or tell UA vendors to
ignore CSS with font-size definitions?

Received on Tuesday, 8 June 2004 09:51:10 UTC