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Re: Increase Font Size vs. Zoom

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From: David Ashleydale
Date: Nov 13, 2012 10:32AM

Jared, it sounds like from those numbers that we should at least support
IE's "Text Size - Largest", since you list it as 132%.

Do you think it would be valuable to tell our development and design teams
that among their testing tools, they should always try IE's Text Size -
Largest and ensure that the page doesn't break? That is, ensure that all of
the text is still readable and not obscured by other page elements?

I ran this by one developer already and he said he thinks it's almost
impossible to do. He pointed to a page that has a restricted container size
that is based on the size of the image it's next to. He said that if
someone increases the font size only, the only way for the text to be
readable is if its container also grows, but it can't grow without wrecking
the entire page.

We can, of course, go back to the drawing board and actually plan for how
we want the pages to look and behave when someone increases the text size,
but, man, that's a lot of work.

I might put this in everyone's back pockets as something to think about for
future pages, and to think about for the next redesign. Zooming the entire
page is probably good enough as a workaround until a redesign is done with
this in mind. I know it's annoying to have to scroll right and left (I have
to do it on my iPhone all the time), but this would cost a lot of time and
money to fix.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts!
David


On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 3:36 PM, Jared Smith < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 3:50 PM, David Ashleydale wrote:
> > Thanks, Jared. Do you happen to know what percentage IE's View - Text
> Size
> > - Largest is equivalent to?
>
> Here's what I found in some quick testing...
>
> IE9 (View... Text size):
> Larger = 115%
> Largest = 132%
>
> Firefox (using CTL + or Command + to Zoom Text Only):
> 1 increase = 110%
> 2 increases = 120%
> 3 increases = 133%
> 4 increases = 150%
> 5 increases = 170%
> 6 increases = 200%
>
> Safari:
> 1 increase = 119%
> 2 increases = 144%
> 3 increases = 175%
> 4 increases = 206%
>
> Chrome (Settings... Show advanced settings... Font size):
> Large = 125%
> Very Large = 150%
>
> You'll find that even 150% can be very difficult on some sites. A
> lower value may be more reasonable in many cases.
>
> Jared
> > > >