px or %

hargi · 4 Sep 2006 at 12:17

when working with Css is it best to use Px or % or when would you use one in favour of the other?

tsinc80697 · 4 Sep 2006 at 12:22

Use px if you want a fixed setting, use % if you want it to accomodate changes.

I use % in my image positioning divs, as images may not be the same size, so the % way accomodates for this

nin9abadga · 4 Sep 2006 at 16:38

yeah it depends, i often use a mix, % and ems around text usually and px for fixed position layouts.

nin9a

Sic · 4 Sep 2006 at 17:26

for accessibility, work in ems and %. i happen to like my websites looking a certain way, so i px everything - unless told otherwise

toString · 4 Sep 2006 at 18:25

I've always wondered which is better to use for text % or em, and why?

zetec452 · 4 Sep 2006 at 19:01

I've not read that before, em's being better etc.

I've only ever worked on one website that requried me to use %. In the end it didn't go live

Augmented · 4 Sep 2006 at 19:16

Whatever the layout requires, but for me it's almost exclusively px, em and % and usually a combination of all three.

As a basic rule:

If I need something fixed, I use px - sidebar columns, headers, graphics etc. Classic example - 760px width container.
If I need something to scale proportionately I use ems e.g. all text, text containers, anything that needs to scale proportionately to text.
% values for either components of fluid layouts where I just want something to roughly span an area e.g. two columns in a container 50% width each, or where something needs to be scaled as a multiple of something else e.g. 200% font-sizing.