Re: Origin of Verdana

Walter Ian Kaye wrote (2:15 PM -0800 2/25/98):

" What about the factor of "nominal" screen resolution? A 13" monitor at a
" resolution of 640x480 has about 72 pixels per inch -- this is the nominal
" "dpi" (ppi?) for MacOS. For some reason, Microsoft puts PCs at 96dpi (why
" I don't know -- Pythagorean law should hold true for any platform), with
" the result that Arial 9 for Windows has the same number of pixels as
" Arial 12 for MacOS. I've seen Arial 9 on many MS/Windows web pages, which
" becomes quite illegible (~6.75pt) on the Mac.

Aye. See http://www.verso.com/agitprop/points/font_wars.GIF

" What is the solution?

Per the CSS1 Recommendation [1], don't use points or other absolute units
for online typeface specification unless you know the pixel density of the
output medium and the policies of the rasterization engine. Which is to
say: almost never. Use em or pixel units and campaign your favorite browser
maker to scale the latter when the visual angle of a pixel strays
significantly from 0.0227 degrees. (1/90" at arm's length.)

http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1-961217#units


Todd Fahrner
mailto:fahrner@pobox.com
http://www.verso.com/agitprop/

The printed page transcends space and time. The printed page, the
infinitude of books, must be transcended. THE ELECTRO-LIBRARY.
	- El Lissitzky, 1923

Received on Wednesday, 25 February 1998 17:35:56 UTC