Re: HTML 3.xx & scalability

At 5:05p 05/09/96, andreas@wni.co.jp wrote:

>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!!

I rely on <table> support to ensure that my text elements remain properly positioned relative to graphics, regardless of font size. As an example:

  +----------------------------------+---------------------+
  |  _____________________________   '                     |
  | |                             |  '     Welcome to      |
  | |                             |  '                     |
  | |                             |  + - - - - - - - - - - +
  | |                             |  '                     |
  | |        ( graphic )          |  '      Walter's       |
  | |                             |  '                     |
  | |                             |  + - - - - - - - - - - +
  | |                             |  '                     |
  | |_____________________________|  '        Web!         |
  |                                  '                     |
  +----------------------------------+---------------------+

Just don't do like Microsoft does on their web site, where they hard-code table width to 745 pixels. Yeesh! 472 pixels should be the hardcoding maximum, and let tables *optionally* resize beyond that. I guess MS figures that everyone uses 800x600 with windows maximized. Well, I have 832x624, and do not care to have my eyes traverse such a huge distance when reading a single page; the screen real estate is best used for multiple windows of ergonomic widths. But enough about my pet peeves... ;)


>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).

In the Mac world 72dpi is actually a "constant" in the QuickDraw imaging system, which is why screens are normally set to that -- it's what makes it WYSIWYG!
I created a calibration GIF and placed it on my web site, reachable via the large "Viewing Notes..." button link on my home page


>any hints and proposals welcome,

Maybe a META tag to indicate to the browser how the page author's system was calibrated (assuming it even was, hehehe). This information could be used along with user preferences (such as scaling factor, threshholds, etc) to determine wheter to scale part or all of a page, or whatever.


-Walter

__________________________________________________________________________
    Walter Ian Kaye <boo@best.com>     Programmer - Excel, AppleScript,
          Mountain View, CA                         ProTERM, FoxPro, HTML
 http://www.natural-innovations.com/     Musician - Guitarist, Songwriter

Received on Thursday, 9 May 1996 05:40:46 UTC