Re: [css3-fonts] font-size-adjust auto issue

I think at this point it might be best to simply drop the 'auto' value
of 'font-size-adjust', at least for CSS3 Fonts.  There have been
several suggested alternatives but I don't see any sort of consensus
for any of the choices.  Rather than wait for consensus and hold up
other important features in the spec, it would be best to defer this
feature for now.

Regards,

John Daggett


----- Original Message -----
From: "Vladimir Levantovsky" Levantovsky@monotype.com>
To: "Sylvain Galineau" <galineau@adobe.com>, "Jonathan Kew" <jfkthame@googlemail.com>, www-style@w3.org
Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 5:04:14 AM
Subject: RE: [css3-fonts] font-size-adjust auto issue

I like the idea of allowing 'font-size-adjust' use the specific font as a value target, e.g.

font-family: Verdana, Futura, sans-serif;
font-size-adjust: Verdana;

Allowing a specific, predefined font be set as a target will in fact make this property easier to use and have much more deterministic behavior, but there is always a risk that the font in question may not be available on a platform or it may be a webfont that needs to be downloaded first.

However, there is one caveat with allowing generic-family names (i.e. , ) as value - the results of the adjustment will still be unknown. It is an improvement compared to using the 'auto' value but a very marginal improvement nevertheless. 

Cheers,
Vlad
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sylvain Galineau [mailto:galineau@adobe.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2013 3:26 PM
> To: Jonathan Kew; www-style@w3.org
> Subject: Re: [css3-fonts] font-size-adjust auto issue
> 
> 
> 
> On 8/26/13 7:59 PM, "Jonathan Kew" <jfkthame@googlemail.com> wrote:
> 
> >
> >Alternatively, I still think my earlier suggestion of allowing
> >font-size-adjust: would be an improvement over ,
> >in that it would be clearer to authors that they're explicitly asking
> >the browser to adjust the sizing of whatever font(s) are used to
> better
> >match one of its defaults.
> 
> I like this; font-size-adjust is imo usability-challenged, whatever one
> thinks of the auto value. Calculating the right ratio generally
> involves authors going through various hoops and experiments to guess
> the right number. Which, as pointed out, may end up not working so well
> on other platforms.
> 
> Specifying the font family whose x-height you want to use seems both
> far more usable and closer to the design intent. Well, except for the
> property name which no longer seems quite right. (Bikeshed!)

Received on Wednesday, 28 August 2013 03:17:30 UTC