IE font-size

[Harris Kosmidis]

I have a site up and running (www.solsoft.gr). I tested it with FF2 and
IE6 and works ok with some IE hacks.

Ok the CSS isn't good cause I started designing it with another look and
the customer ended up wanting a 3-column layout.

Now I see that IE7 mess things up. First of all there's a left margin
which I don't know why it exists. Secondly when I see the page the fonts
are way too big. I first had body{font-size:0.62em} but now changed it
to 11px. If I reload the page (in IE7) the fonts shows good. But why do
I have to reload? (I don't override the CSS with IE7).

Any help is appreciated.

thanks

[David Stone]

In article <45************ ***********@aut hen.yellow.read freenews.net>,
Johannes Koch <ko**@w3develop ment.dewrote:

VK schrieb:

The hint #1: 200% of say one pound is not the same as 200% of one
ounce.

The hint #2: the initial value where %% are applied to in IE depends on
the current mode (BackCompat vs CSS1Compat). While in the quirk mode
it's counted from Medium, in the "standard compliant" one it's counted
from Smaller.

So you say that the basis for the calculation of the font size defined
in em or % are different where they should be equal (the parent
element's font size)?

But isn't % based on the height, while em is based on the width of
_a specific character_ ? So % and em, while valid size units, would
NOT be expected to give the same vertical screen size for text.

I would call this a bug.

I would call it a misconception. To borrow from hint #1 above, it
would be more like calculating relative amounts of weight versus
volume, rather than simply weight in different units.

[Michael Fesser]

..oO(David Stone)

>But isn't % based on the height, while em is based on the width of
_a specific character_ ?

Not in CSS:

| The 'em' unit is equal to the computed value of the 'font-size'
| property of the element on which it is used.

Micha

[Darin McGrew]

Johannes Koch wrote:

>So you say that the basis for the calculation of the font size defined
in em or % are different where they should be equal (the parent
element's font size)?

VK <sc**********@y ahoo.comwrote:

em and % are *relative* inits. It means that no matter what: there must
be at least one *absolute* unit somewhere (implicit or explicit) from
which all other calculations are made.

Exactly.

With body{font-size:100%} where do you propose to look for to calculate
100% of? html element? * html? :-)

The absolute unit *should* be the font size the user's browser is
configured to use. That's the whole point of using relative units for font
sizes. As Todd Fahrner wrote some time ago:

The font size chosen by the user as a comfortable default (1 em)
provides more truly useful information about the rendering
environment than all the resolution-sniffing, window-querying,
"open-this-wide" logic you can throw at the problem.

And in this sense, 100% and 1em are equivalent. The only practical
difference is that MSIE has a nasty bug in its implementation of em units,
which can be worked around by specifying "body {font-size: 100%}" in the
document style sheet.
--
Darin McGrew, mc****@stanford alumni.org, http://www.rahul.net/mcgrew/
Web Design Group, da***@htmlhelp. com, http://www.HTMLHelp.com/

"I used to have a handle on life, but it broke."

[VK]

Darin McGrew wrote:

The absolute unit *should* be the font size the user's browser is
configured to use.

Right. And on my current 1024x768 96dpi LCD it's 12pt (Medium). But on
my other 1280x1024 I'm comfortable with 14pt (Larger).
Please note: 12 and 14 pt (points), not px (pixels) - because these are
initial values for IE's font size switch.

And in this sense, 100% and 1em are equivalent. The only practical
difference is that MSIE has a nasty bug in its implementation of em units,
which can be worked around by specifying "body {font-size: 100%}" in the
document style sheet.

No, Mister, what you *really* want to do it's to enforce a tiny
per-pixel step scale on IE users because "proper" UAs are using it. So
you want them to have their Largest just like if I press Ctrl+0 and
then twice Ctrl++ in Firefox.
If you worked for me and I catched you on the act, that would be a full
business week w/o doughnuts to you - and that's just for the first time
:-) :-|

[Bergamot]

VK wrote:

>
With body{font-size:100%} where do you propose to look for to calculate
100% of?

Whatever the user's browser default font size is. That may be any one of
IE's selectable values from smallest to largest, not a fixed 'Medium'
(or whatever) as you claim. Other browsers give the user more precise
control than IE does.

And again, 1em is the same initial value.

--
Berg