Re: [css3-mediaqueries] tv and screen media types

2010-10-29 13:30 EEST: David Storey:
> On 29 Oct 2010, at 09:45, Rune Lillesveen wrote:
>> On Fri, 29 Oct 2010 09:14:31 +0200, fantasai <fantasai.lists@inkedblade.net> wrote:
>>> Note that definition of the pixel has been superseded.
>>> http://fantasai.inkedblade.net/style/specs/css2.1/px-unit
>>> http://csswg.inkedblade.net/spec/css2.1#issue-149
>>
>> Yes, and with that definition, for tv, the physical units would be
>> anchored to the reference pixel, making it even less interesting to
>> change font-sizes based on the resolution media feature.
> 
> Yes, as far as I see it, browsing on TV is a different context. It is
> less about DPI and resolution, and more about the context you are
> viewing web pages. Usually in a more social setting. PC and mobile is
> more one to one where you are close to the screen, while with TV you
> are about 10 feet away, and often (but not always) i a more social
> setting where multiple people can see the content. For this you don’t
> care about the DPI, but more that the user is viewing on a TV (TV
> media type) and you want to adjust the layout; The most simple being
> the text size so it is physically big enough to read across the room
> instead of readable at a few cm from the screen.

The text should have correct size automatically if you don't change the
font from the user's default font size. You don't need a "TV" media for
that.

What you cannot know without "TV" media is that the end user in social
environment and probably does not want to know about all little details
that could be provided. I would expect a properly done "TV" media styles
to basically just apply "display: none" to selected items.

This is very similar to not rendering slide notes in "projection" media.
I'd expect "TV" media to be somewhere between "screen" and "projection".
That is, render less details than "screen" but a bit more than "projection".

Rationale: with "screen" it's expected that user can comfortably read
quite some text and with "projection" the user cannot be expected to
read heavy text because usually the user cannot control the presentation
in "projection" media (e.g. presenter changes the slides or user is
watching a video or some other content that automatically advances).
With "TV" media, the long text may be a bit uncomfortable to read but
the user usually has control of the display and may spend as much time
as he wants.

I think that there still should be an another (orthogonal) set of media
queries for possible input methods: with a mouse one can hover with the
cursor and target objects only a couple of pixels, with a touchscreen
hover effects usually do not work and precision is in tens of pixels and
with TV set, one usually only has a digital keypad (a remote with on/off
buttons).

A well made style sheet selection would consider all these aspects when
deciding which style to apply.

In the end, I must admit that I don't expect very many well made style
sheets to ever appear.

-- 
Mikko