iScrollBigText

This JavaScript application demonstrates a way of scrolling text in a web page. When the end of the message is reached, it's repeated.

You can enter new text for the message on the Settings screen. Alternatively, you can pass text to this page via the URL — handy for linking to personalised messages. See below for notes about this and more. Unfortunately, this version for Mobile Safari has a few issues (also below). I hope to address them in an update.

There are options for size (height) of the message, the scrolling speed, the direction and the font used. The message can appear as white text on a black background, or black text on a white background. There are buttons to restart the scrolling, and to pause or resume the scrolling. You can also click on the message to stop/restart.

Notes

• The page uses a proposed CSS3 property to support scrolling/sliding/marquees.
• Messages and other parameters can be passed via the URL. All parameters are optional, and defaults are used if parameters are omitted. Specific details regarding the parameters:
  • text: The content of the message. Special characters can be URL-encoded if necessary
  • size: The size or height of the message, in pixels.
    
  • speed: The scrolling speed for the message.
    
  • direction: The scrolling direction for the message.
    
  • font: The font/typeface for the message.
    
  • invert: Flag to swap colours, i.e. use white writing on black background.
    
• The complete URL for the current scroller settings can be sent using email via a link beneath the form.
• Example URLs that link to customised scrollers:

Issues

• Scrolling is a bit slow in Mobile Safari (when compared to the Mac version). I've compensated by increasing the underlying speed values, but this means sacrificing smoothness.
• Rotating the screen from landscape (widescreen) to portrait (narrow) when viewing the scroller causes the buttons to not be redrawn properly.
• After clicking on "Send URL by email", the link remains in a "working" state. Click on some other form object to correct this.