August 21, 2000 - Changing the Font Size on the Fly | WebReference

August 21, 2000 - Changing the Font Size on the Fly

Yehuda Shiran August 21, 2000
Changing the Font Size on the Fly
Tips: August 2000

Yehuda Shiran, Ph.D.
Doc JavaScript

Color change is a relatively simple task for the browser, as the size of the element does not change and there is no need to reflow the document. This is not the case when you change other style properties, such as fontSize or fontFamily. When they change, the amount of space required by the element changes as well, and the browser needs to reflow the document to ensure a perfect layout. Let's take the following paragraph as an example. Mouse over and out of it:

Mouse over this paragraph and see how the font size changes to size 30. Mouse out and see it go down to 8. This is a good way to pack more text on a window-size page and let the user magnify the paragraph currently being read. See how the browser reflows the page as if this paragraph was originally written with the current font size.

Here is the code to implement it:

<SPAN STYLE="color:purple" onMouseOver="this.style.fontSize = '30'"
 onMouseOut="this.style.fontSize = '6'">
 Mouse over this paragraph and see how the font size changes to size 30.
 Mouse out and see it go down to 8. This is a good way to pack more text
 on a window-size page and let the user magnify the paragraph currently
 being read. See how the browser reflows the page as if this paragraph
 was originally written with the current font size.
</SPAN>

Learn more about the subject in Column 66, Dynamic Styles.