HTML 3.xx & scalability

i wonder if the need for scalability is anywhere beeing discussed?

different screen resolutions on different platforms & within same platforms
needs to be compensated by something such as an user definable general
scaling factor (comprising each visual element of a HTML document).
(such a scalefactor could as well be set automatically using JAVA to
inquire the setup of the client's monitor if we use absolute measure units
such as <points> or <mm> for dimensioning visual elements.)

at the moment users can set their own default font size- but what does this
mean to the page layout when for example picture- sizes are staying the
same!!
and even then: a user defined font size of <10pt> for example will not be
displayed in real 10pt size on the monitor if the pixelsize does not equal
1pt. 
this is a big problem in the WIN, unix world where screen resolutions are
usually higher than in the MAC world (72dpi is quite the common standard).
(a display resolution of 80dpi would result in a displayed fontsize of
72/80*10pt = 9pt)


any hints and proposals welcome,



andreas schneider

Received on Thursday, 9 May 1996 04:01:20 UTC