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Re: Increase Font Size vs. Zoom

for

From: Jared Smith
Date: Nov 13, 2012 11:14AM

Yes, I think IE's largest text size (132%) is a pretty good goal. Do
keep in mind, however, that IE will not resize pixel-sized text, so
it's a good idea to also do testing in Firefox or some other browser.

Supporting increased text sizes can be very difficult. As Dawn noted,
the page does not have to look the same, it simply has to maintain
readability and functionality. Horizontal scrolling is allowable at
Level AA, but must be avoided at Level AAA. And she gave some good
recommendations for making this happen (the predominant cause of
failures is pixel heights), though these can be very expensive to
implement throughout a large site.

Jared

On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 10:32 AM, David Ashleydale < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> 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
>> >> >> >>
> > >