Author: John

Font Size Reference

I usually designate a font size in my CSS on either the html or body tag using a percentage then size the rest of my document using ems. The reason I use a percentage value instead of just specifying the base font size in pixels is so that users can change their font size in their browsers if they choose.

Since most, if not all, web browsers use 16px as their base font size I can set my base font size using this formula:

percentage = 100(base font size/16)

Just insert your desired base font size in pixels into the formula and you will have the correct percentage to use in your CSS.

And now a handy cheat sheet if you don’t want to do the math:

Pixels to Percentage
Pixels Percentage
8 50
9 56.25
10 62.5
11 68.75
12 75
13 81.25
14 87.5
15 93.75
16 100
17 106.25
18 112.5

A quick disclaimer: there may be a browser out there that doesn’t use 16px as its base font size that I don’t know about. Also, this works only if you haven’t already changed your font size somewhere else.

Improved Wireless




"New" Router

Originally uploaded by John Beales.

My “new” wireless router finally arrived, (purchased on ebay), yesterday and I have it up and running with dd-wrt firmware. It seems pretty good so far, I can now use my wireless connection in my living room on the other side of the house, almost 50 feed and several solid walls away.

The next upgrade will have to be some antennas for full speed ahead and hopefully huge range.

Recognition for the Little Guy

In the past year or so as I started to think about working as a web designer, and then actually started working as a web designer, I have taken a keen interest in improving my knowledge and skill. In doing so I have found some websites that while they are quite well known are run by small groups of people or individuals more as a labour of love than anything else.

In the past week I have come across two specific instances where these sites were recognized and recommended not by some individual web designer like me but by multi-million dollar corporations. These two examples are QuirksMode, (recommended in the Google Maps API Documentation), and Position Is Everything is quoted in the IE Blog post on CSS changes in IE 7.

I was happily surprised when I came across these two links. It’s nice to see folks getting credit where credit is due, especially when it’s coming from huge corporations some of whom usually pay very little attention to the little guy.