Vertical centering/letterbox - table outside, DIV for page contents

This is vertically centered in IE6 in Quirks mode. I.e. with a comment before the DOCTYPE, whether XHTML or HTML4. Note that Quirks mode does not work well with the CSS-discuss relative font sizing method used here. But it doesn't work in Gecko.

In Gecko, it is vertically aligned with an HTML 4 Transitional DOCTYPE, regardless of comment before doctype. But the fontsize (using the css-discuss method) is different from IE.

In Opera, the only way to get it to vertically center is to leave out the DOCTYPE entirely.

Conclusion

No DOCTYPE: works in IE6, Gecko, Opera.

HTML4 DOCTYPE, Quirks mode: Works in IE6, Gecko

This is another embedded table to show font inheritance