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RE: Relative vs. absolute units

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From: John Foliot - bytown internet
Date: Jan 3, 2003 3:34PM

Jules,

Your reading is both correct and reasonable.

However, remember that with the latest versions of popular browsers, they
also support relative sizing for images. See:
http://www.bytowninternet.com/examples/relative.html for examples of what I
mean.

While most images, when subjected to this treatment, may lose a fair bit of
quality, it is an important consideration when developing graphics such as
buttons or "clickable" icons. In these instances, making the image scale
with the text may aid in accessibility, despite the degradation of image
quality.

Food for thought.

JF




> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
> Sent: Friday, January 03, 2003 3:22 PM
> To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> Subject: Relative vs. absolute units
>
>
> Hi:
>
> WCAG 1.0: Checkpoint 3.4
>
> "Use relative rather than absolute units in markup language
> attribute values
> and style sheet property values."
>
> I understand the purpose of using relative font sizes but WCAG 1.0
> Checkpoint 3.4 does not make the distinction that it is referring to only
> font sizes or if it is refering to any time a measurement is to
> be used. For
> example, for usability issues, graphics should be sized with height and
> width but graphics have a "physical" dimension and should be
> measured using
> pixels, an absolute unit of measurement. In an instance where the
> left cell
> of a layout table in which the left cell is the navbar for the
> page (and the
> site), if the links are graphical links, then the graphics will have to be
> measured using pixels and it makes sense to make that cell's width also
> measured in pixels. However, I do agree that the table as a whole
> should be
> sized using percentage (for example 100%) so that the right cell with the
> content may expand or contract as the widht of the browser window
> dictates.
>
> Is this a reasonable interpretation of checkpoint 3.4?
>
> Jules
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> Julian Rickards
> Digital Publications Distribution Coordinator
> Publications Services Section
> Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines
> Phone: (705) 670-5608
> Fax: (705) 670-5690
>
>
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