title: Should I be using absolute font-sizes (small, medium, large et al.)?
body: <p>The W3C maintain a <a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/font-size">page of advice on how to size your fonts in CSS</a> - last updated in April 2010. According to this page the very best way to style fonts is to use the "absolute" font-sizes:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>even better, if a base font-size is set for the document, use absolute size ([ xx-small | x-small | small | medium | large | x-large | xx-large ]) or relative size ([ larger | smaller ]) when defining the font size for a particular element within the document.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>The spec then <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/fonts.html#value-def-absolute-size">defines these font-sizes</a> in a table. As far as I understand this table, <code>small</code> should be 2/3 (<code>66%</code>) the size of <code>medium</code>, and <code>large</code> should be 4/3 (<code>133%</code>).</p>
  
  <p>If I test this out I get <a href="http://jsfiddle.net/nottrobin/m9aF9/1/">rather different results</a> from my interpretation of the ratios specified by the W3C. The results are consistent across latest versions of Chrome, Firefox and IE, but do not tally up with the W3C recommendation. <code>small</code> is <code>81.25%</code> instead of <code>66%</code>, and <code>large</code> is <code>112.5%</code> instead of <code>133%</code>.</p>
  
  <p>Does this mean that modern browsers are not supporting these standards from the W3C? Is there a new standard that superseded this one that I'm not aware of? Or have I misunderstood the meaning of that table from the W3C?</p>
  
  <p>At the end of the day my question comes down to: Is it still the best practice to use absolute font sizes in CSS? Will it behave consistently across browsers? And ideally I would like to know what standard the modern browsers are following.</p>