Re: [css3-fonts] why subscript/superscript metrics can't be used for text decorations

On 06/06/13 2:28 AM, John Daggett wrote:

> During the discussion today, fantasai said regarding the metrics [3]:
>
>> if they exist it will be right, and otherwise they
>> will be slighty off
>
> Unfortunately, this isn't correct, there just isn't a reliable way to
> define the desired feature here, which is what I explained in Hamburg
> and what I was saying today.

This is, unfortunately, the case. The problem has been compounded over 
many years by the lack of any detailed documentation for font developers 
on how to set these metrics correctly, resulting in many simply 
accepting tool defaults that are not in fact appropriate to a given 
design, or misinterpreting the metrics descriptions and entering 
incorrect -- even reversed -- values.

It would be possible, if someone were to produce good documentation, to 
push for better data quality in new fonts, but there would still be many 
thousands of older fonts that would be unlikely to be upgraded.

JH

Received on Thursday, 6 June 2013 17:37:36 UTC