Re: [css-fonts] Specify that the default "medium" font-size should by 16px?

On 2014-01-16 17:57 (GMT-0500) Tab Atkins Jr. composed:

>> Forced how? Why?

> Forced by web compat, where there's a significant contingent of sites
> that are at least somewhat broken when the default font size isn't
> 16px.  Anyone who browses the web with their default font size set to
> something larger sees this on occasion.

And it's long past time to quit ignoring where that fault lies and start 
spreading the word among mere mortals that it's not any browser's fault that 
people have been incompetently designing web pages since last century, and 
had foisted upon them browser "compatibility" that stifles both the 
eradication of incompetent web design and inhibits improvement of current and 
future web experience, a11y & u9y.

>>> so we should specify it.

>> I hope not. A 16px default font size hasn't been an appropriate medium for
>> me in over 12 years.

> It's the default medium on every single browser in existence today, as
> far as I know.

And I just explained to you it isn't. The holdout against the unfortunate 
circumstance of logical unit names usurping names of physical units, KHTML, 
sets its default in the form of a pt unit whose relationship to px varies 
according to DPI, as it should be for all browsers designed for users instead 
of designers and their arbitrary definition of a CSS pt unit.

> User preference has nothing to do with my suggestion;
> I'm talking about the base default, which currently has no specified
> recommendation at all.

Apparently there has been no need for one. What's causing a need now that 
didn't exist before?

>> What browsers should be defaulting to is inheriting an appropriate size from
>> the DE, until such time as it is specifically overridden by user
>> personalization if not done already. That's what Konq does if using its
>> native KHTML engine instead of WebKit. KHTML is the only one left
>> facilitating the display of physical units where physical units are
>> appropriate and desired, and where web pages can be rendered as though
>> intended to be rendered and fit comfortably in the visitor's own
>> environment.

> Once again, user preference has nothing to do with this.  I'm
> discussing the base default in the absence of any other data to the
> contrary.

DATA:
The base default in Konqueror/KHTML is declared in genuine pt, a physical 
unit that depends on display density. To demonstrate, the following listed 
images were created with a virgin user login as regards personalization of 
fonts, DPI or anything else that might impact the values shown in the images.

http://fm.no-ip.com/SS/KDE/	base URL
konq-defaults4102f18-1080w-120.png	10pt/17px/120 DPI/Fedora 18/KDE 4.10.2
konq-defaults4105os123-1080w-120.png	12pt/20px/120 DPI/openSUSE 12.3/KDE 4.10.5
konq-defaults4105os123-1200w-132.png	12pt/22px/132 DPI/openSUSE 12.3/KDE 4.10.5
konq-defaults4105os123-1440-144.png	12pt/24px/144 DPI/openSUSE 12.3/KDE 4.10.5
konq-defaults4114mag4b-1050w-108.png	12pt/18px/108 DPI/Mageia 4beta/KDE 4.11.4

IOW, for display densities below 192 DPI (where 1 device px equals 1 CSS px), 
the base unit is only 16px in KHTML if the DE is actually or is assuming a 96 
DPI display density, and the distribution is assigning the long traditional, 
non-Gecko default size of 12pt (formerly equal to 16px only at actual or 
assumed density of 96 DPI), or the distribution is defaulting to some value 
other than 12pt, and that value at a particular display density works out to 
16px.

Linux, through KDE at least if not other DEs or anywhere else KHTML might be 
used, presents an opportunity for a personal computer to compute and render 
sizes accurately instead of via illogically named "logical" sizing units of 
names usurped from the physical reality that were created long before CSS 
existed.
-- 
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

   Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/

Received on Friday, 17 January 2014 05:44:52 UTC