A 12pt font should be 4.216867mm high everywhere. A 1em font should probably be readable by someone with average eyesight everywhere and a 12px font may require a magnifying glass to read but should still be legible when you use one.
We have different scales and units for a reason, the stupid part is that computers pretend to use physical units and then actually give you something different. So either remove all references to physical units from your graphics libraries or actually try and get it right. Don't arbitrarily redefine units we've been using for hundreds of years because your API sucks.
> A 1em font should probably be readable by someone with average eyesight everywhere
Huh? this makes no sense, as ems are relative units, while points are absolute [0]. If the element has an inherited or defined text-size of 8pt, then within that element, 0.5em==4pt. Hence 1em in <body> is (by default) the default font size of the browser, generally 16pt.
On topic: 12pt should be the same physical size everywhere. 12px should be the same logical size everywhere.
What? As a game developer what data type and value should I specify for font rendering on an iphone, ipad, 32" 720p LCD, 42" 1080p LCD, 60" 1080p LCD, and 120" 1080p projector? Bonus points for solving a similar set but for printed text ranging from index card to billboard size.
This is not a simple problem with a simple solution. If it were simple then there wouldn't be multiple topics and giant discussions associated with each.
So rename pt to something else in the API, if it really bothers you. But don't try and make all the existing software that uses a "12pt" font be 4.216867mm, because rightly or wrongly that isn't and has never been what it means in a computing context.
Points are a unit of measurement that have no place in CS other than in determining the size of text when it is printed. Don't use pts because they make no sense for the medium.
Graphic designers as a group have yet to shed the "limitations" of their education which is STILL grounded in the print world. It is why we still see so many websites that are just strips down the middle of a large screen rather than flowing to fit the screen.
Could you imagine if a similar design strategy was used for developing applications? Every app would have a fixed window and none would go full screen.
Maybe designers should stop doing mockups in a static format such as Photoshop and start doing their mocks in a browser.
Seriously, if you can't figure out how to work with dynamic content do us all a favor and go back to designing printed material.
My approach is to leave it to the device manufacturer/user and only use % based font sizing. CSS wise, for layout I then rely on % for horizontal spacing/positioning and em's for the verticals, which act as a kind of "em = line" system. Even though an em is rarely a line is a baseline sense, it makes cross-device design a lot more painless leaving the base unit to the device itself.
Incidentally, using arc-seconds-per-pixel does not necessarily make a good default - I want a smaller text size on my iPhone not just because I hold it closer to my face, but also because there just isn't as much screen real estate and I prefer to deal with somewhat smaller text to avoid scrolling.
[+] [-] __alexs|13 years ago|reply
We have different scales and units for a reason, the stupid part is that computers pretend to use physical units and then actually give you something different. So either remove all references to physical units from your graphics libraries or actually try and get it right. Don't arbitrarily redefine units we've been using for hundreds of years because your API sucks.
[+] [-] lloeki|13 years ago|reply
Huh? this makes no sense, as ems are relative units, while points are absolute [0]. If the element has an inherited or defined text-size of 8pt, then within that element, 0.5em==4pt. Hence 1em in <body> is (by default) the default font size of the browser, generally 16pt.
On topic: 12pt should be the same physical size everywhere. 12px should be the same logical size everywhere.
[0] http://jsfiddle.net/8Mv6x/2/
[+] [-] forrestthewoods|13 years ago|reply
This is not a simple problem with a simple solution. If it were simple then there wouldn't be multiple topics and giant discussions associated with each.
[+] [-] lmm|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tulrin|13 years ago|reply
Graphic designers as a group have yet to shed the "limitations" of their education which is STILL grounded in the print world. It is why we still see so many websites that are just strips down the middle of a large screen rather than flowing to fit the screen.
Could you imagine if a similar design strategy was used for developing applications? Every app would have a fixed window and none would go full screen.
Maybe designers should stop doing mockups in a static format such as Photoshop and start doing their mocks in a browser.
Seriously, if you can't figure out how to work with dynamic content do us all a favor and go back to designing printed material.
[+] [-] daniel_sim|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] comex|13 years ago|reply