My definition of a liquid form is a web form that stretches as the user resizes their browser. Or a form that is sized according to a design, and not the length of the input it will accept.
I have been working with liquid forms for a couple of weeks now, and I am writing to let everyone know that they suck and here is why:
1) Too small or too big for actual content
A phone number field does not need to be half a page long, most phone numbers are at most 10 characters long. Or a 5-digit zipcode field does not need to stretch more than 5 spaces.
example:
2) Stick with the size attribute
What’s wrong with relying on the “size” attribute to create input fields that are the right size for the content?
3) Extremely hard to style
Browsers have different default styles and hover effects for input fields. It is extremely difficult to definitively define the size of an input field, especially if you are dealing with percentage width or EMs.