- From: Simon Daniels <simonda@microsoft.com>
- Date: Mon, 8 Sep 1997 14:24:50 -0700
- To: "'neil@bigpic.com'" <neil@bigpic.com>
- Cc: www-style@w3.org
Just a quick note on this from a TrueType / OpenType perspective. For these font formats the type designer decides at which sizes a font is smoothed, and/or hints are applied. Windows 95 and Windows NT have default settings that are applied to older fonts that don't include designer-specified settings. For regular weight fonts the default values are as follows; From 0 to 6pt type is smoothed (if smoothing is switched on), from 7 to 13pt type is hinted but not smoothed (typically the type features are only one pixel wide and smoothing would adversely effect legibility) and from 14pt on up type is smoothed and hinted. There is no reason why a page designer or reader shouldn't be allowed to decide if smoothing should be applied, thereby overriding the decisions made by the type designer. For example a user might decide that <P> text should never be smoothed - to aid legibility. Or a designer might decide that all text on a page should be smoothed to give a uniform look to a page. Also for low quality, poorly hinted or unhinted fonts, smoothing at small sizes could be used to achieve more aesthetically pleasing, but equally illegible text. Si
Received on Monday, 8 September 1997 17:26:36 UTC