Re: [css3-text] fullwidth punctuation kerning

Ambrose Li wrote:

> > Section 7.3 of the CSS3 Text spec details a property that effectively
> > controls kerning on a small subset of CJK punctuation characters:
> >
> >  http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-text/#punctuation-trim
> >
> > I don't quite see the necessity of of an author level property to
> > control this unless it's something that is really controlled at an
> > author level stylistically.  In fact, supporting this in a browser
> > that uses an OpenType layout engine would effectively require
> > *undoing* layout based kerning information contained in fonts,
> > especially since the default is 'none'.
> >
> > I think it would be better omit this property and let the text layout
> > engine handle this in conjuction with well-designed fonts.
> 
> I think I agree with you in principle, but as far as I know only
> Japanese fonts are "well designed" (OpenType-wise). Chinese
> fonts, as far as I know (but I may be wrong) do not generally
> contain any such information. So whoever proposed the property
> probably had Chinese fonts in mind.

Right, I seem to recall this feature being discussed in conjunction
with MS Gothic which has the same issues.  I guess I don't feel we
should be adding new CSS properties to band-aid old fonts, that's
bass ackwards.

John Daggett

Received on Tuesday, 28 September 2010 08:16:26 UTC