Quote:
Originally Posted by drhowarddrfine
As you frequently will hear, the web is not print. I know of no one who uses pt (except, now, Terry,  )Pts depend on the dpi of the screen. So Macs and PCs and any other computer that's not set the same will look different making it inconsistent. Pts are only used when printing the page. |
I know that print and screen display differ. Still, these days every computer uses pretty much the same sorts of LCDs, except for a few hold-outs like me. What does differ is the screen size; the dpi counts seem to be pretty similar.
Still, TerryP was talking about using ems (I didn't know ens weren't used). use of ems seems even worse than points. An em, in typography at least, is the width of the letter "m" in the font size and family used. So there are two variables in this, rather than just one (the point size). That seems like the wrong approach.
Clearly I am not a web designer, though I am certain aware of the problem. I would have thought that there would be a means to identify the dpi and screen size in the initial negotiation with the web site. That would seem to be about the only way to get any hope of device-independent output, or at least a proper scaling of results (like two columns vs. three or four) for the particular display device. I see no reason why a web site on a cell phone or a 30" monitor should look the same.