[Bug 12154] b and strong are font-weight: bolder in implementations, not font-weight: bold

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=12154

John Daggett <jdaggett@mozilla.com> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 CC|                            |jdaggett@mozilla.com

--- Comment #24 from John Daggett <jdaggett@mozilla.com> 2012-02-02 01:00:02 UTC ---
Just to point give the reasoning behind using 'font-weight: bolder' for these
default styles, the idea is to assure that a particular span of text is
contrasted with the surrounding text wherever possible:

  <p>This is <strong>really</strong> true!</p>

  <h4>The <strong>real</strong> truth</h4>

The "wherever possible" is the problem here, most font families today ship with
only a single bold face.  But it's already possible on OSX (e.g. Helvetica
Neue) and on Windows Vista and above (Arial, given a DirectWrite-savvy
browser).

The overbolding that results when accidentally nesting <b> or <strong> seems
like a bug in content, not in the rendering.  We did run into problems when
switching to DirectWrite, the Archive button in Gmail being a good example, but
many of these have since been fixed.

I understand that many authors have effectively assumed that all font families
have at most regular/bold weights but it seems silly to neuter functionality
going forward given that richer sets of default fonts will be increasingly
available.  OSX and iOS ship with a comparatively richer set of font choices,
it would be a win for Webkit users to solve the problematic content by
evangelizing authors to be aware of the difference between bolder and bold.

-- 
Configure bugmail: https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/userprefs.cgi?tab=email
------- You are receiving this mail because: -------
You are the QA contact for the bug.

Received on Thursday, 2 February 2012 01:00:11 UTC