How to make a website "bigger"

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How to make a website "bigger"

I'm in a dilemma, hoping you guys can help:

I've created a website for a friend of mines relative. However, after making the whole thing, the relative says she didn't understand that the design pictures I sent her where scale 1:1, so she wants the website "bigger". (basically the same thing as pressing ctrl+plus in Firefox)

Do I have to redo all CSS and design, or is there a better way to do this?

Thanks in advance,

+1 A:

There's going to be some css work, but how much depends a lot on how you built it.

I would have thought you're going to have to resize images etc, but you may well just be able to increase the size of your frame and page sections relatvice to each other and up the text size a bit.

This should get you part way there...

Paul 2009-11-10 16:35:53

You have several options, but either way you're looking at rewriting some CSS. Your choice will depend upon the actual website.

Move to a larger fixed width site. Keep in mind that 960px wide is about your maximum for this. This will account for browser chrome at 1024x768.
Change over to a fluid width site. This site will expand to fit your browser. If your site is heavy on graphic elements, this might not be your best option. However, many people like a site expanding to fit their whole browser window.

Brad Gignac 2009-11-10 16:38:21

If you use a CSS framework like YAML it has support for "zooming" the whole page.

powtac 2009-11-10 16:38:41

I don't think the zoom property in CSS is reliable enough yet, so I'm afraid you will have to go back to the drawing board. Now for future reference, you know to send them a sample of the work before it is completely finished!

Josh Stodola 2009-11-10 16:38:47

That's just one advantage of only using variable values for any styling like em or even better ex... With them you'd just have to adjust your basic font-size a few pxs higher and boom; everything's got bigger.

Still, to your question: Depends on how many fix values you used, the more, the longer it will take to adjust it to be "bigger".

But for the future I really encourage you to use variable sizes for almost anything as there is no disadvantage in it and it makes your website 100% resizable.

ApoY2k 2009-11-10 16:41:42

I have used a lot of variables in my css styles etc, but I still feel its quit a big job to change it all.. oh well.

Martin Andersson 2009-11-10 18:24:29

Sure, it is work, and you will curse on me for saying that, but just think of it; If a user visits a purely fixed website (pixel-safe) and wants to turn the font-size just a little bit bigger (you can't prevent him to do that!) and then the whole beautifully made design is f*** up becaus nothing changes but the font-size. With ex/em everything is based on the current fontsize. From a design component, it doesn't make any difference if you style in ex or px, just that 1 ex is = font-size (e.g. 11px).

ApoY2k 2009-11-11 07:13:08

I feel the need to quibble with the statement 'there is no disadvantage to it'. Using em units can be helpful on small sites that only one person works on, but the moment things get bigger (the site, the team), they cause problems. 'Ems' are relative, so text that's inside a div with a font-size:1em suddently gets bigger if another div with font-size:1em is added as a container - the text is now 2em. Keeping track of how all these numbers are adding and multiplying together can sink you.

Elocution Safari 2009-11-11 15:02:31

Why would anyone assign a variable width to a font-size? That's not likely to be used alot, is it? Font-sizes to be assigned fixed sizes and change only via `%` and not by `ex` or `em` - whoever does that should not even come near any "bigger things" imho.

ApoY2k 2009-11-11 16:07:10

ansaurus

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How to make a website "bigger"

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