NYCPHP Meetup

[tedd]

At 10:11 AM -0400 8/9/07, csnyder wrote:
>Tom, your tip about 62.5% is one I've never run across before. Nice!

It's interesting how the value of 62.5 keeps cropping up in science, 
but that's a different topic.

For what I do (see below), using 62.5% would be a nightmare.

>I think the best (as in, most comprehensive) way to go about this is
>to put in the work and create multiple stylesheets. For all but the
>most simple and flexible of designs, increasing the font size will
>crowd or break some design elements.

I agree. It's a simple matter to use a php style-switch, I even 
provide one on my web site here:

http://sperling.com/examples/styleswitch1/

 From that you can tie in any number of style sheets to adjust font 
size to anything you want.

If that doesn't ring your bell, then you can assign variables inside 
css to change font size as you want, see how here:

http://sperling.com/examples/pcss/

>It's much nicer for visually-impaired users to see a properly
>proportioned design at the largest size, rather than giant text
>squeezed into standard-size columns. You can also replace images that
>need to be larger, tweak icon sizes, etc.

That's exactly what I do and for that exact reason.

If you tie everything to em's (I don't want to argue about what's 
best) and use font-size: 100% (or 100.1% for some browser bugs), then 
it becomes a simple matter to design a site to be "zoom cooperative" 
(<-- my term).

What this means simply is that no matter what zoom level the user 
uses, the site stays in the same relative configuration. I hate it 
when giant text is squeezed as you describe above.

Now, can normal web sites be "zoom cooperative" ? But of course they 
can, it just takes a bit of css to make it so -- as's described here:

http://sperling.com/examples/zoom/

And, if you want to see real web sites that do this, try these:

http://earthstones.com
http://webbytedd.com/clients/beckyscan

There are many, many more.

IMO, it's a good way to accommodate those with vision problems and do 
so without being obvious about accommodation.

Cheers,

tedd

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