Alternatives to String.big() for Text Styling in JavaScript

What is string.big()?

In JavaScript, string.big() is a method that has been deprecated, meaning it's no longer recommended for use in modern development. It was intended to create a visual effect of displaying a string in a larger font size.

How it Worked

When you called string.big() on a string, it would return a new string that wrapped the original string within HTML <big> tags. These tags were used in older HTML to make text appear slightly bigger than the surrounding text.

Example

const normalString = "This is a normal string.";
const bigString = normalString.big();
console.log(bigString); // Output: <big>This is a normal string.</big>

Why it's Deprecated

There are two main reasons why string.big() is deprecated:

1. Limited Functionality
   It only affects the visual presentation of the text within the HTML document, not the actual string data itself.
2. Separation of Concerns
   In modern web development, it's considered better practice to separate the content (strings) from the presentation (styling) using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). This allows for more flexibility and maintainability of your code.

Alternatives for Styling Text

Instead of using string.big(), you can achieve the same visual effect using CSS:

<p style="font-size: 1.2em;">This is a larger string.</p>

Here, the font-size property is set to 1.2em, which makes the text 20% larger compared to the default font size. You can adjust this value to control the size as needed.

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Deprecated string.big()

// Example 1: Simple usage
const message = "Hello, world!".big();
document.body.innerHTML = message; // Injecting HTML into the body

// Example 2: Concatenation with big()
const name = "Alice";
const greeting = "Welcome, " + name.big();
console.log(greeting); // Output: <big>Welcome, Alice</big> (not ideal for console output)

<p style="font-size: 18px;">This is a larger paragraph.</p>

<p class="large-text">This is text with a larger font size class.</p>

<style>
  .large-text {
    font-size: 20px;
    font-weight: bold; /* Optional: Adding bold weight for emphasis */
  }
</style>

<script>
  const element = document.getElementById("my-text");
  element.style.fontSize = "1.5em"; // Adjusting font size dynamically
</script>

<p id="my-text">This text size can be changed with JavaScript.</p>

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CSS Styling

This is the recommended approach for modern web development. It separates content (strings) from presentation (styling) and offers greater control:

<p style="font-size: 1.2em;">This is a larger string.</p>

You can adjust the font-size property for various sizes:

• Other units like rem, pt, etc. are also available.
• EMs: Relative to the parent element's font size (e.g., font-size: 1.2em;) - makes text larger by 20%
• Pixels (px): Precise control over size (e.g., font-size: 20px;)

Template Literals with Inline Styling

Template literals (backticks) allow embedding expressions within strings. You can combine them with inline styles:

const name = "Alice";
const greeting = `Hello, <span style="font-size: 1.5em;">${name}</span>!`;
document.body.innerHTML = greeting;

DOM Manipulation with JavaScript

You can dynamically change the font size of existing elements using JavaScript and the DOM (Document Object Model):

const paragraph = document.getElementById("my-paragraph");
paragraph.style.fontSize = "18px";

• For dynamic changes based on user interaction or data, combine JavaScript with CSS or template literals.
• For simple styling, CSS is ideal.