How can effectively use dynamic CSS in a mobile browser?

Question

I am trying to develop a mobile version of my web application and I am having trouble getting it to look good on multiple browsers. I figure if I use some device capability detection I can dynamically generate widths and font-sizes based on a particular devices screen size. The problem is that it seems like a mobile browser doesn't treat 1px of CSS width equal to 1px of screen width. On an iPhone with a screen width of 320px, a body tag that is 320px wide takes up only about a 1/4th of the page. With no real frame of reference, it makes it hard for me to say "On a screen of 320px wide, make the font 16px" or something along those lines. Is there some general rule of thumb I can use to calculate the real browser width in CSS, or some calculation using multiple device capabilities that will help me generate dynamic CSS more effectively?

Thanks,

Mike

Answer 1

Try defining sizes and font weights in relative units. I would give % and em a go. Many mobile browsers try to scale everything down so that they render normal websites nicely. You may find you need specialy meta tags or the like to controll these browsers.