Problem with Percentage Measurements

[verydeepwater]

I am working on a fixed layout ebook for Kindle Fire. I am trying to convert all the absolute positioning measurements form pixels to percentages. But I can't get it to work. There is no consistency between Dreamweaver, Safari and Kindle Preview. If I get it right for Safari, it is widely out on all the others. Does anyone have an idea what's happening?

[Aerys]

Originally Posted by verydeepwater

I am working on a fixed layout ebook for Kindle Fire. I am trying to convert all the absolute positioning measurements form pixels to percentages. But I can't get it to work. There is no consistency between Dreamweaver, Safari and Kindle Preview. If I get it right for Safari, it is widely out on all the others. Does anyone have an idea what's happening?

I think that should be normal that your seeing discrepancies by using "percentages" as measurements since the reader/browser is calculating the position based on the size of the window.

The standard on fixed layout book is to use pixel measurement.

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by Aerys

I think that should be normal that your seeing discrepancies by using "percentages" as measurements since the reader/browser is calculating the position based on the size of the window.

The standard on fixed layout book is to use pixel measurement.

Depends on the elements that contain the element you're styling and on what property the percentages are being applied to:

• Font sizes measured in percentages are relative to the previous size, and should be reasonably safe.
• Percentages for things like width or height of an element are relative to the size of the enclosing container. If that enclosing container is not a fixed size, then neither is a percentage of that size. If it is a fixed size, then a percentage of that size should always be the same.

[Jellby]

And percentages in vertical margins are relative to the width of the element, not height.

[verydeepwater]

Percentages for things like width or height of an element are relative to the size of the enclosing container. If that enclosing container is not a fixed size, then neither is a percentage of that size. If it is a fixed size, then a percentage of that size should always be the same.[/LIST]

That's helpful, thanks. When I added 'position:absolute' to the body tag in the CSS, I mostly solved the problem. I also understand, you need to add the page size in pixels. In some contexts I have seen the page size added to the body tag and sometimes to a div tag, which is used on each page to set the size. Does it matter which way you do it or is this a difference between epub and mobi versions?

The reason I ask, is that I have completed a fixed layout eBook, with the page dimensions added to the body tag, and with a separate div tag for each page, which I have used to identify and format all the elements on each page. I suppose, I should also add in the CSS width and height to each of these divs, but when I do it doesn't seem to make any difference. I still have the problem that there is a slight variation in the flow of the text, when I transfer the file from my computer to my Kindle Fire.

[HYPE]

Setting a fixed size on the body or on a main div should both work independently of the format.