As a website developer who specialises in CSS-based designs, I obviously hang around (i.e. read blogs of, participate in mailing lists with) other like developers. One of the legitimate concerns many\u00e2\u20ac\u201dif not all\u00e2\u20ac\u201dof them have is the relatively less support Internet Explorer has for CSS 2.1. Part of the reason for this is the fact that the current version of IE is nearly three years old, while every other popular, standards-compliant browser has had a major release within the past year.<\/p>\n
A common issue such designers have is users having the ability to resize webpage text to meet their level of reading comfort. All modern browsers have resizing capabilities; however, some have more powerful capabilities than others do. For example, IE can only size text to five sizes (smallest, smaller, medium, larger, and largest) while Opera can resize text and images from 20% to 1000% of the original size. As well, IE can only resize relatively sized text (i.e. em, pt, cm, in,<\/strike> %), while other browsers can resize even absolutely sized text (i.e. px, pt, cm, in).<\/p>\n
Given the common and predominant disapproval of IE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relatively low support for CSS 2.1, many people often attribute IE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inability to resize absolutely sized text as a bug. Some even go as far as saying IE is broken in this regard. I strongly<\/em> disagree with this notion.<\/p>\n IE is not broken. It does exactly what the designer tells it to do. If a designer specifies s\/he wants a font sized based on 12 pixels then it renders the fonts based on 12 pixels. In actuality, it is the other browsers that are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153broken\u00e2\u20ac\u009d since they incorrectly render the text in an effort to allow users to resize text.<\/p>\n I repeat, IE is not<\/em> broken.<\/p>\n That being said, pixel-based text is a bad practise for copy. Any user coming to your website should be able to resize at least the copy text. This ability should not be hampered at all, and should be independent of what browser s\/he uses. Ideally, all text should be resizable, and images should not be used to solely present text.<\/p>\n In conclusion, the inability to resize text in Internet Explorer is not the fault of Microsoft engineers; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the fault of inconsiderate website developers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A common issue such designers have is users having the ability to resize webpage text to meet their level of reading comfort. All modern browsers have resizing capabilities; however, some have more powerful capabilities than others do. For example, IE can only size text to five sizes (smallest, smaller, medium, larger, and largest) while Opera can resize text and images from 20% to 1000% of the original size. As well, IE can only resize relatively sized text (i.e. em, pt, cm, in, %), while other browsers can resize even absolutely sized text (i.e. px).<\/p>\n Given the common and predominant disapproval of IE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relatively low support for CSS 2.1, many people often attribute IE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inability to resize absolutely sized text as a bug. Some even go as far as saying IE is broken in this regard. I strongly<\/em> disagree with this notion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-browsers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4NkW7-i","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2004\/08\/10\/internet-explorer-65\/","url_meta":{"origin":18,"position":0},"title":"Internet Explorer 6.5?","author":"Kim Siever","date":"10 August 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Microsoft released Windows XP Service Pack 2 yesterday. Part of the service pack includes updates to Internet Explorer. On the plus side, IE now comes with a native pop-up blocker. It also requires user authentication for drive-by downloads. Another cool feature is the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Add-On Manger\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, which is similar to Firefox\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Browsers"","block_context":{"text":"Browsers","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/browsers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2004\/08\/06\/firefox-is-the-coolest-browser\/","url_meta":{"origin":18,"position":1},"title":"Firefox is the Coolest Browser","author":"Kim Siever","date":"6 August 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I ditched Internet Explorer at home a few moths ago for Netscape. Every time I opened IE for the first time, it would take nearly a minute to load the first page. That was simply unacceptable and since I could not find the problem, I simply switched to another browser.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Browsers"","block_context":{"text":"Browsers","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/browsers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Get Firefox","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mozilla.org\/products\/firefox\/buttons\/getfirefox_large2.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":89,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2005\/04\/25\/ie-7-to-be-more-standard-compliant\/","url_meta":{"origin":18,"position":2},"title":"IE 7 to Be More Standard Compliant","author":"Kim Siever","date":"25 April 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Chris Wilson, the lead program manager for the web platform in IE, announced on the IE Blog that IE 7 will be rid of many of the CSS inconsistencies that plague IE currently. To boot, it will also support PNG transparency. Oh how I've wanted this for a while. Support\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Browsers"","block_context":{"text":"Browsers","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/browsers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":108,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2005\/07\/28\/ie7-beta-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":18,"position":3},"title":"IE7 Beta 1","author":"Kim Siever","date":"28 July 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Dean, the guy responsible for IE7, announced yesterday that Windows Vista (and concurrently IE7) Beta 1 has been released. After reading the IE7 Technology Overview, I am please to see some of the new features that will be available in the new version of IE. tabbed browsing better user interface\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Browsers"","block_context":{"text":"Browsers","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/browsers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":95,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2005\/05\/31\/ibm-backs-firefox\/","url_meta":{"origin":18,"position":4},"title":"IBM Backs Firefox","author":"Kim Siever","date":"31 May 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Looks like Firefox is getting some much needed support in their fight against Internet Explorer. IBM is encouraging its employees to use Firefox, aiding the open-source Web browser's quest to chip away at Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Firefox is already used by about 10 percent of IBM's staff, or about 30,000\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Browsers"","block_context":{"text":"Browsers","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/browsers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":98,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2005\/06\/13\/ie-tabbed-browser\/","url_meta":{"origin":18,"position":5},"title":"IE Tabbed Browser","author":"Kim Siever","date":"13 June 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"IE now has tabbed browsing! Well, sort of. You have to install the MSN toolbar. The 1.2 version of the MSN toolbar now allows IE users to have tabbed browsing functionality. It appears the functionality is available to users of IE 5 and 6. So what takes IE so long?","rel":"","context":"In "Browsers"","block_context":{"text":"Browsers","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/browsers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}